Elsewhere: Editing
Elsewhere pieces are copies of the words I’ve written in other places around the web. This will be the first!
In response to David Alan Harvey’s question:
“…do most of you feel that editing/presenting is your most formidable task???”
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Editing is certainly a formidable task for me.
My editing difficulties, in descending order of difficulty:
1. (Toughest) Having a story to tell in the first place.
2. (Avoiding laziness and letting go) Admitting to myself that I have nothing good in the current take and letting go of the ‘almosts’.
3. (Too many pictures) Digital makes it much easier to shoot a great number of photos, which makes editing them down more difficult. I think Cartier-Bresson was right when he said (in The World of Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1968 edition):
“We must, however, refrain from snapping rapidly and mechanically, because in this way we only burden ourselves with useless shots that encumber the memory and cloud the clarity of the whole picture.”
Recently I’ve been trying to take less shots while paying more attention. I almost never look at the LCD after taking a shot, especially when photographing people.
4. (Sequencing) Putting the photos in a sequence that tells the story. This is closely related to number 1 above. I often find that I ‘invent’ the story while editing and change my mind about what I want to say, which shows that I fail at number 1 above…
At any rate, I’ve come to realize that editing is as important as taking the pictures in the first place if your objective is a unified and coherent work such as a picture story, photo essay, etc.
Regarding presentation, I’ve learned here that accompanying words and descriptions are very important if you want to help someone quickly understand what you are trying to say with your photographs.
When I see elaborate, ‘flashy’ presentations I find that it usually detracts from the work, and is often a veil over lousy work (related to number 2 above).
Your presentation must not take precedence over your work. The presentation plays a supporting role, not the main role. Simple is best (and simple is not easy!)
Off to photograph, to edit, and to work on my site redesign!
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OK, QUICK POCKET GUIDE TO EDITING AND YOUR LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHY:
first, STUDY the visual classics (painting, sculpture, photography, film)…
READ E.B.White and Japanese haikus…
then GO WITH YOUR GUT, spinning out your own style either revolutionary or tangential…
then YOU CHOOSE 10 pictures…show them…print them well….treat them with respect…
then, FORGET those first 10…
put them in the closet..AVOID falling in love with those first 10 good ones (the downfall of many)….
be HONEST with yourself….look in the mirror and tell the truth to that person…
then, go shoot 10 more!!…etc etc…
if you are a passionate photographer, you will always have 10 more…
if you think you are “done”, then you are…
SOMEDAY you can go back and get those first 10 out of the closet!!!! but not yet!!!
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