Photo Editing

[Veronica]

How ruthless are you in editing your photos?

Thom came to my workout this morning to shoot and took 177 photos in about 80 minutes. We ended up with 5 shots that made the final cut. He was playing with lighting today.



The others are here.

We have some relatives who could be a little more ruthless.

Veronica

[limewave]

those guns! Wow!

I do edit down our photos as far as choosing the best one from a selection. I figure people don't need to see 10 shots of us hiking--one is usually sufficient. I don't usually photoshop any of our pictures unless I plan on ordering an enlarged print that will be displayed. I edit photos all day long as part of my job so I can be hyper-critical if I let myself. When it comes to family photos I let them be as they are--imperfect but full of great memories.

[Veronica]

Thanks! My upper body puts on muscle if I sneeze.

I'm not a big fan of posed group shots, especially the ones where the group is just standing there. I like photos of people doing things, even if they look dorky.

Veronica

[limewave]

Yes, I totally agree. "Action" shots are the best no matter the circumstance!

[Crankin]

I don't take photos unless I am forced to (I specialize in cutting heads off), but for reference, DH took over 1,000 photos when we went to Spain. Most of them he took while riding . How these come out well, I don't know. We ended up with about 700. He edits a lot of stuff to the point it drives me nuts. I don't care if something is off center, etc. He's a good photographer, but to me, it's just for the memory. I agree, action shots are the best... we don't have too many posed pictures.

[lph]

I usually keep about a quarter of my shots. If I'm trying for a specific shot I may end up keeping one of 10 or one of 20. The trick to editing vacation shots is for me to pare immediately, and then to do it again after a month or so. By then even I can see how boring many of them are!

[shootingstar]

I take alot of photos. I should be more ruthless--maybe I'll pare down and delete 8% of shots or so. Otherwise it will cost me computer memory-wise! I have looked at some photo blocs months later and pared down even more.

Since I blog, in addition just wanting photos for personal memories I'm taking a broader range of pics. Dearie also uses some of my pics (different ones) for his blogs and other stuff related to cycling advocacy.

In sending a few photos of myself to loved ones by email, yes about 25% of them are me on bike because I'm vacationing somewhere, but more often it's photos of me that has nothing to do with biking --I think that's how they would like to remember/visualize me: they know other facets/expressions of me.

Yesterday I recently submitted a short blog post about self with requested photos of me in action to a popular blog --which means on bike or snowshoeing. After scrolling through thousands of pics (yes) taken on my camera in past 8 months, I found I didn't have many decent ones of me close-up on bike. So after approx. 25 pics by dearie later yesterday, there were 3 good ones. I sent one I liked the most --a rare shot of me, from a distance, cycling against a snowy city skyline/ background. The sunlight was just right..

[rebeccaC]

Since I now use manual focus digital rangefinders I shoot in a completely different way than when I used dslr’s.

It’s been good for my creativity to get away from superfluous menus and back to taking my time to seeing light, setting exposure, focusing and composing. Even if I’m setting exposure, using zone focusing, composing and shooting quickly I feel I’m getting more of my creativity into images……and I have a lot less photos, but no less satisfying ones, to look through when I start post processing.

[shootingstar]

Since I now use manual focus digital rangefinders I shoot in a completely different way than when I used dslr’s.

It’s been good for my creativity to get away from superfluous menus and back to taking my time to seeing light, setting exposure, focusing and composing. Even if I’m setting exposure, using zone focusing, composing and shooting quickly I feel I’m getting more of my creativity into images……and I have a lot less photos, but no less satisfying ones, to look through when I start post processing.

Well, rebecca are there any manual pocket sized digital rangefinders? I used to deal with my Nikon manual SLR and took some good shots..ages ago when hard copy prints was the main option.

[rebeccaC]

not pocket size but much smaller than dslr's and with mine at least image quality very close to medium format. I can easily fit one of my rangefinders, an attached lens and another lens in my small topeak handlebar bag. There are some small mirror less cameras like the sony nex series that still aren't pocketable but in a good price range, easily used manually, with sensors as good as comparable dslrs and again much smaller than a dslr.

[BikeDutchess]

A timely thread as I'm working on a photo book about our trip to Australia last month. I managed to cut 1000+ photos to under 300. Used iMovie to put them together in a slide show (which I also uploaded to youtube) - this will probably be how I'll share them with most folks who are brave enough to ask (it's still 20 minutes long!). But I'd like to get them printed in a nice photo book for ourselves and it is proving to be a LOT of work. Blurb has a 40% off coupon which expires tonight - I really don't know if I'll make it by the deadline!

[rebeccaC]

A timely thread as I'm working on a photo book about our trip to Australia last month. I managed to cut 1000+ photos to under 300. Used iMovie to put them together in a slide show (which I also uploaded to youtube) - this will probably be how I'll share them with most folks who are brave enough to ask (it's still 20 minutes long!). But I'd like to get them printed in a nice photo book for ourselves and it is proving to be a LOT of work. Blurb has a 40% off coupon which expires tonight - I really don't know if I'll make it by the deadline!

asking

[BikeDutchess]

You brave soul! And not even a relative ! PM sent.

[Eden]

I am a photographer by profession. I am ruthlessly brutal about editing. Usually I keep one out of every 10-20 if that… We were taught that way. When I was a freshman in college we had to shoot 10 rolls of film for every assignment and we'd turn in no more than 3-5 photos.