Editing : how to tell what to ditch?
Vincent Villeger
@vincentvilleger6 Jun
Editing : how to tell what to ditch?
I know ruthless editing is helpful, and removing the less interesting images only serves to make the remaining ones shine brighter. But how do you tell? I seem to really struggle knowing what to keep and what to kill. Thoughts? Tips? Anyone else struggling with this?
Same here. The way I do is:
X for the ones they don’t have a chance
1* potential
5* I really like and go straight to the different projects folders.
A few weeks/months later I’ll go back to the 1* and sometimes I find pearls.
Yes i just feel like I’m being too precious and I ought to be more ruthless.
Waiting and coming back to it makes sense.
One thing that I do is delaying the review. I usually wait 2 weeks or up to a month before reviewing the images to edit, and I find this lets me be a lot more strict and I can review with an objective mind.
To me it's quite clear to disconnect how it felt the moment of the shot from the actual review. Even if the shot felt great in the moment, if it doesn't instinctually interest me within a few seconds of the edit review I'll remove it. For me this is cleaner for the mind.
If you're not sure then it doesn't work!
Trust your gut! Yes, sometimes I think I’m just willing for something to be good when it might simply not be up to standard…
Garry Winogrand taught his students to avoid reviewing their shots for at least a year (iirc). That's worked well for me. After I upload the day's shoot, I only cull the clear failures and keep anything that is even partially ambiguous. From experience, it's better to wait at least several months before serious culling. I need to 'forget' the images completely. And then I can get ruthless with them.
It boils down to a single question - Does it pop?
Initial review and bin the obvious shite efforts. Then leave them for a bit, let them bake. I tag obvious keepers with 'Red' in LR and they go to a smart folder. They get backed up.
Matt Stuart keeps every photo (and he takes a lot) and keeps them on HDDs dedicated to each year. Then he'll go back to review. I'm not Matt Stuart.
I'm preparing a trip to Quito, Ecuador, and its vintage, colonial style architecture gave the idea to grab a film camera for the trip.
In the process, I started looking at old negatives and slides. I cannot tell you what a treasure trove that is. Plenty of useless images that are wonderful to look at for they contain history, style and so on from another time.
All this to say: don't delete anything and wait 30 years. You'll love them!