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Author Topic: How do you edit your images  (Read 4605 times)

HSakols

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How do you edit your images
« on: December 10, 2013, 09:50:27 am »

Back when I shot film, I would look through a manageable number of transparencies on the light table and then decide what I was going to scan.  Now I have many more images, making the process more complicated.   I find that I work on multiple images at a time and then slowly sort from there.  How do you make a careful edit of your images?
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amolitor

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2013, 11:10:56 am »

I use one of several pieces of software which will show me all the pictures from a session (all this pictures in a specific folder on my disk, for instance) easily, and which will let me star, tag, label, pictures easily. Pictures that are worthless don't get a star, tag, label. Those pictures essentially vanish from my consciousness. That can be anywhere from 70 percent to 100 percent of the pictures I've shot, these days.

The rest I tinker with in some sort of editor. They may readily lose their "starred" status is the edits are not panning out, or if they're just pictures of the kid's birthday or whatever, I just share them out.

"serious" pictures get tinkered with and further culled. Eventually some number of pictures make it through the editing process and get squirreled away for eventual printing.

The big cull is done up front though, a "yes/no" process that happens very fast. In this age of digital, I shoot many exposures of more or less the same thing, and it's always pretty clear which one or two exposures of a thing are worth a second look. It's also clear what ideas simply didn't work out. So, after the quick cull what's left is: the best 1 or 2 exposures from each idea that looks pretty good in the cold light of day.

Then it's about eliminating all but the best ideas, and developing a good concept for the edit, if necessary.
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HSakols

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2013, 08:08:00 pm »

Quote
The rest I tinker with in some sort of editor.
  Yes,and sometimes I find that I have spent too much time on one image when I have many others that are just as good or maybe even better.  And then I keep making new images but don't have enough time to carefully work with them.  Still I'm grateful that I have a steady job which makes opening my lightroom catalog even more special as an escape to my world of photography.  Yes Rob, I do not have a professional purpose which surely will send me into a tailspin of indecision and eventual insanity.  Still I have many more collections that I want to create if for nothing else, myself. I couldn't agree more with having a defined purpose. I don't want to spend endless hours on choosing images, when I need time to get them post processed for printing.
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amolitor

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2013, 09:02:10 am »

The up-front triage -- that "contact sheet" triage, if you will -- becomes much much more important when you're shooting digital, I find. The sheer bulk of the pictures we're tending to shoot is pretty crazy.
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PeterAit

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2013, 09:49:41 am »

Back when I shot film, I would look through a manageable number of transparencies on the light table and then decide what I was going to scan.  Now I have many more images, making the process more complicated.   I find that I work on multiple images at a time and then slowly sort from there.  How do you make a careful edit of your images?

I have fallen into the following routine (this is in LR):

1) Go through the images and assign "red" to the obvious dogs (out of focus, etc) and 3 stars to those that catch my eye for one reason or another.
2) Delete permanently the red images.
3) Filter on 3 stars and look more closely, perhaps doing some preliminary development. Mark the keepers with 4 stars.
4) I go back to the 4 star images and give them the full treatment. The few that turn into really special images get that 5th star.
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Rob C

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #5 on: December 11, 2013, 11:35:09 am »

  Yes,and sometimes I find that I have spent too much time on one image when I have many others that are just as good or maybe even better.  And then I keep making new images but don't have enough time to carefully work with them.  Still I'm grateful that I have a steady job which makes opening my lightroom catalog even more special as an escape to my world of photography.  Yes Rob, I do not have a professional purpose which surely will send me into a tailspin of indecision and eventual insanity.  Still I have many more collections that I want to create if for nothing else, myself. I couldn't agree more with having a defined purpose. I don't want to spend endless hours on choosing images, when I need time to get them post processed for printing.



Noted!

I still feel that way, so even when devoid of client, the way out has been to shoot only one idea at a time - maybe three or so variations on exposure around the one given by Matrix, and close down. On to the next. Back at the ranch, I pop them all into Nikon's Capture NX2 and pick the one that closest resembles a decent tranny, look at the thing's readings and check exposure and colour temp, and then save it as TIFF to Photoshop as quickly as possible. Once there, I swap to native PS files and scrub the TIFF.

I can't remember going back to anything left behind in Nikon Capture. I have to go with my hunch or go crazy. It's the same idea as scanning - pick the one you think best and forget the rest. Life and patience are both too short.

And it's not true that without a client nobody's paying: you are - with your time, and that's the most precious currency of them all...

Rob C

Isaac

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2013, 01:18:12 pm »

I can't remember going back to anything left behind ... pick the one you think best and forget the rest. Life and patience are both too short.

Yes to ruthless culling.

otoh I try to force myself to pay some attention to the failures - what I was trying to do, and what I would need to have done to make it work.
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Alan Klein

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #7 on: December 11, 2013, 02:44:57 pm »

I don't shoot to much so it's ready to edit. 

melchiorpavone

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2014, 08:54:08 pm »

Back when I shot film, I would look through a manageable number of transparencies on the light table and then decide what I was going to scan.  Now I have many more images, making the process more complicated.   I find that I work on multiple images at a time and then slowly sort from there.  How do you make a careful edit of your images?

None of this matters at all.
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luxborealis

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2014, 10:22:31 pm »

I work in a similar way to Peter, and in Lightroom, but in my initial cull I use the "X" key to flag rejects, the ~ (tilde) or "P" key to flag Picks. For many years I have kept everything, but am now deleting the rejects. There' soothing like a good purge!

From there, flagged photos will get three or more stars with the highest ranked getting my attention first. This giving of stars starts by looking at the full image for framing, but quickly goes to 100% zoom to check fine details. Often I will use the "C" or Compare mode to look at two very similar images side-by-side – very helpful mode to use.

Ultimately, though, I am also being far more careful about how much I shoot in the first place. I'll bet I take half the frames I did a year or so ago, spend less time culling on screen and have over twice the "keepers".
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wmchauncey

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Re: How do you edit your images
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2014, 07:11:37 pm »

I'm not much different than those above...I don't shoot without a plan/a subject that I want to capture.
Basically, culling isn't necessary when one does studio still stuff and shoots tethered...when I'm done,
it goes on my desktop to see if I can live with it.      ;)
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Torbjörn Tapani

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Re:
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2014, 09:02:12 pm »

Use LR and flag images that might make the cut. Start basic edits and if it doesn't work I unflag the image. Almost never delete something I imported. It's on import drive and backup drive so it's just a hassle.

An image either gets edited until satisfaction or not. If it makes it,  it has a flag.
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