Workflow: Culling your images

4 comments

• Comment Link Saturday, 09 March 2013 03:28 posted by Publius

  when I shoot a model, I try to give her different looks for the same pose. A smile and a non-smile, for instance. I may prefer the smile for my portfolio, but she may have a dozen smiling pics already and wants the non-smile. for me to make that decision is to deny her the best image she would like.
  
  I do agree you do not need four smiling pics in the same basic look, but if there is a clear difference that makes both images good, I share them.
  
  Adobe Bridge has a similar Star and coloring system, as well. First pass is to eliminate/delete my mistakes, and images that have no real use, even cropped tight. Second pass, is potential edits with stars. Third is to pick between similar poses using stars or colors. Fourth pass is get the final ones for editing if the third pass still has more than I care to edit.

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• Comment Link Sunday, 06 December 2015 11:36 posted by Mark Keohane

  I use the reject flag. Run through, mark the rejects with the little black flag then remove them. Rinse and repeat until you only have left the ones that capture what you wanted. Be ruthless; you won't ever think 'I wish I'd just kept that image that was just slightly not composed right'. Once they're gone they're gone and you won't miss them.

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• Comment Link Tuesday, 08 December 2015 16:45 posted by Jim Wolff

  Hi Matt. Culling is a most difficult task that I've finally managed to get a grip on. I'll share my method here:
  
  First, I'll group all shots of a similar scene into separate folders.
  
  Then, I'll go through each folder and reject any of the obvious ones that are unacceptable.
  
  Now that I may have only 8 to 12 shots per scene, I look for the best qualities: catch-light, body angles, composition, clarity, depth of field, bokeh, etc. and rate them 1-5.
  
  Finally, I'll go through my final ratings and "star" the best one of each group - occasionally maybe two from the same group.

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• Comment Link Tuesday, 08 December 2015 16:45 posted by Jim Wolff

  Hi Matt. Culling is a most difficult task that I've finally managed to get a grip on. I'll share my method here:
  
  First, I'll group all shots of a similar scene into separate folders.
  
  Then, I'll go through each folder and reject any of the obvious ones that are unacceptable.
  
  Now that I may have only 8 to 12 shots per scene, I look for the best qualities: catch-light, body angles, composition, clarity, depth of field, bokeh, etc. and rate them 1-5.
  
  Finally, I'll go through my final ratings and "star" the best one of each group - occasionally maybe two from the same group.

  Report