leslie_cheung Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Personal doc/sp photos: As simple or as analytical, odd, crazy as you want if you don't mind sharing. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orvillerobertson Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Even though I shoot film I edit digitally through Adobe Bridge. I also use my Filemaker Pro database of images. This has worked surprisingly well for me since it's much faster than shuffling through hundreds of prints. The best thing I do is to consult with my wife (who's great at this since she has a wonderful and impartial eye. I send off PDFs to respected friends and curators. Somehow a consensus builds towards the most effective images for the chosen theme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffrancis_van_boxtel Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Orville, I'm not mrroied anymore. What should do? Turn too one of the she friends? Yes friends and also journalists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffrancis_van_boxtel Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Sorry for typo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobmichaels Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 My goal is to dispose of everything but the absolute very best. So the default is to delete everything that does not have immediate potential for being in the top 20-40 photos I do of a series. And each series is a minimum of six months time, more often one year plus. Or it is an event, everything but the top 3-4 of that event. Now this may take several passes but I know that the first pass I need to be deleting at least ten photos for every one I keep. This means I may shoot 5 rolls of 35mm film and cross off 160 of 180 frames. Or if digital, delete 180 of 200 files on the first pass. And "delete" means gone forever. This also means that I may shoot all day and have zero to show for it. It's just a mindset of convincing yourself that no one wants to see the 26th through XXXth best photos you did in 2007. So your first pass should be to eliminate everything that you think is not in the top 100 photos you did this year. Then your next pass would be to eliminate everything that does not have a chance of making the top 50. Then at the end of the year, choose the top 10 or 20 depending on how good they are. If there is any doubt, delete and keep going. Once you accept that your objective is to find great images to keep rather than worrying about what you are deleting, it's gets a lot easier. Mechanically, I read b&w negs on a light table. Ditto for slides. Digital files are loaded into PhotoMechanic (fast) where you can mark those to keep and delete the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orvillerobertson Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 That's exactly why I do not like going digital. If I deleted forever that ruthlessly, most of my best work would not exist. Be very careful and think about what you delete forever. It will come back to haunt you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sven_ochan Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 "How do you edit your *personal* work?" Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think Leslie was looking for a reply along the lines of: I pick up my Scheider 4x loupe; I place the loupe on my contact sheet; I put my eye to the loupe... I do a first sprawling edit. Then a much tighter edit. Then I come back later (weeks, months), and, with the benefit of hindsight and distance, check to see what I missed in the very first edit; I always missed something. Photographers tend to go through a number of evolutionary phases: Phase one - you can't edit anywhere near ruthlessly and analytically enough. Phase two - you learn to edit very tightly. Phase three - you realise that editing too tightly is far more of a liability than editing too loosely, and that certain series of images demand a loose and extended edit (sadly, not many photographers reach the nirvana of phase three). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orvillerobertson Posted May 25, 2007 Share Posted May 25, 2007 Sven, I love your melancholy. So typically true. Editing your personal work (I only shoot personal work however) is a real adventure best left to the experts, which means NOT by me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank.schifano Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 Orville, With all due respect, I think you are wrong about this. Who better than you to edit your work, at least for the first pass? In any group of images there will be some real clunkers, some mediocre, and some that are really good. The first pass should be to eliminate the real dogs. Then put it aside for a while and review what's left. And so what if you don't get it right at first? As long as you haven't thrown anything away, you're still good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orvillerobertson Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 Hi Frank, I should have said that I seek the participation of respected friends including my very astuste wife. I do participate very actively but listen very carefullyto the opinions of others. Hope that clears it up a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_sullivan Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 ummmmm....I look thru all the pics until something stands out for me more than the rest of it. Of course, I do this about 3 times in the first week......and things change. then I go back thru them about a month later, and things change........errrr.....sometimes even a year later, and things change. throw out images?............NEVER! disc space is cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_ Posted May 26, 2007 Share Posted May 26, 2007 What Tom said. That's what I do - have never thrown anything away. www.citysnaps.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sven_ochan Posted May 27, 2007 Share Posted May 27, 2007 "Sven, I love your melancholy" Orville, you too could share my melancholy. Simply move to the Baltic region. The diet of puffins, pickled herrings, and nothing but a choice of Baywatch or Bergman on TV would soon instil a similar mental state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan_reynolds Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I do my first edit looking at the negs while they are drying. During winter, when I get little opportunity to take photos, I sometimes print or scan negatives that I think I may have missed on the first edit. Sometimes I almost persuade myself, but through years of this I've learned that my first hunch is always right. If the neg has nothing that catches my eye, the positive certainly won't have. My second more ruthless edit is always an improvement. Finally, I reject almost everything (and this without pickled herrings). But by then it's spring, and I can go out taking photos again with renewed ambition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael j hoffman Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 The first step in editing is organizing. I save all my raw images in seperate monthly folders (this month's folder is labelled "07.06"). Images are then labelled to indicate the date of exposure and the frame number, and appended to indicate the capture medium. For example, today's first black-and-white (I shoot specifically for black-and-white conversion) digital image would be labelled "07.06.08.001.BW". Today's first image on Tri-X would be labelled "07.06.08.001.TX". I send all my digital images to be converted to black-and-white to a folder labelled - oddly enough - "Conversions B&W". I archive my images both raw and b/w conversions, monthly. I store negatives with a contact sheet (with frame numbers to be enlarged written on the back) in plastic sleeves in an archival binder for each year. There is no magic to the editing. I either like it or I don't. Usually, I don't. I shot 70-some street images in NYC on Tuesday; only two made it to the "Conversions B&W" folder. For this year, so far, I have 8 keepers out of several hundred frames shot. Michael J Hoffman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biker jon Posted June 8, 2007 Share Posted June 8, 2007 Michael, same here. In answer to the question however, I was told by a prof once to show my pics to several of a number of folks. The cest ones will be repeatedly the ones others like even if they don't know why they like them. Just a thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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