Showing only the best
My shooting philosophy as I tell people is that I take photographs of everything whether it be people, events or locations. But it seems that same philosophy can be extend to how I post my photos. Apparently I post everything I shoot or so it seems.
I have been taking photographs for nearly 7 years now. In that time, I have taken thousands of photos of all sorts. I have also posted thousands of images to various sites like this blog and to Flickr.
Generally, my workflow with photography is that out of focus, badly composed or just plain uninteresting photos will get culled on the first go around when I download the photos off the camera and onto the computer. That would normally remove 15-20% of the photos from the shoot but still leave a large number to go through.
The first problem I have in handling these photos is that I will have multiple shots of the same composition with each shot differing slightly from the other. From these I would normally pick one for further processing and be posted. But as for the others, well, they remain with me. In the past, my thoughts were that maybe I will revisit these photos and find a rough jewel among the discards that with more experience I will have gained since I took the photo, I can make something out of it. In reality, when I archived a photo shoot, I have never return to view them again let alone rework them.
The second problem I have is that I can never settle on a photo best representative of a shoot or a pose. This is more common on the dance recital shoots whereby I will take 10-15 pictures of a dance piece and end up processing and posting nearly all of them because not one of them stood out for me as the best. Furthermore, I think also that if I took the time to shoot those many photos, then as many as possible need to be posted. Perhaps this problem speaks to my skill as a photographer. The very best of photographers need only one or two photos to capture the essence of a person, place or moment. I am nowhere near that skill so I go for the cumulative effect; more is better and somehow when it is all together, then I may have captured the scene I was hoping for.
If I was a making a living as a photographer, then these considerations would be minor. All part of the job more or less. But I am not a photographer by trade and the free moments I have that I can dedicate to shooting and then working the photographs are few and far between these days. Even doing a modest set like the recent Dixie Classic Fair may take a few hours in post production. A massive set like a dance recital would take weeks to go through.
As of today, I have four photo shoots stretching all the way back to May of this year that are at various stages of work and I am still taking on new photo assignments especially now with autumn colors now peaking in the area. So something has to give if I want to manage the situation and not get too far behind.
First of all, I need to be more efficient in my shooting. Not everything needs to be photographed and if it needs to be photographed, not multiple time. Assess immediately on playback if the photo is worthy to retain and if now, delete accordingly.
Secondly, on download of photos, group like photos into a comparison set and from these apply a rating grade to each photo. Drop the lowest grade photos and then reassess the remainder and keep removing until there is a definite shot that makes the grade.
Third, after the grading of the shots from the previous pass, look at the remainder as a whole and see if there is a coherence among them as part of a narrative for the shoot. While the shot may be technically superb, if it feels out of place compared to the others, then perhaps it should not belong with them. This is more of a judgment call as to how it should be shown if it should be shown at all.
Finally, the final assessment of the photo is whether it be something that would be representative of a portfolio. True photographers do not cart stacks of albums when displaying their work. A single slim portfolio or two is all that is necessary. I am no professional but I too need to have something comparable so to demonstrate the best of what I have accomplished in my years of photography.
So the days of me posting scores of photos from a single shoot are probably in the past. Hopefully, a much tighter criteria of what to shoot, process and post will lead to better quality photos to be viewed by all and save me some time in the process. This is all part of the learning process as a photographer.
