Editing; Processing and Selecting

The photographs below were all taken upon visiting my girlfriend Lindsay in Northumberland. We took our cameras on a trip to Plessey Woods and the results of my snapping can be seen below. I will edit my set of photographs, removing the less-good to leave me with only a couple of shots that I feel are the best. I shall accomplish this task using a process where I remove a few images at a time.

I use Adobe Bridge to review and select my images as it has a lot of features to make the selection process very easy.

Initial 59 photographs

1 Technical Edit

Rejections

After browsing through the images using Bridge’s Review Mode, I discovered some that had technical faults and therefore needed to be rejected immediately. These rejections are shown above. An image that has a technical fault is one that is very poorly composed, out of focus, underexposed, overexposed or blurred due to camera shake.

 

2 The Selects

Screenshot of Review Mode

Whilst in Review Mode, it is possible to right click on a photograph and tag it with several different options. Each photograph can be instantly tagged as a Reject, given a rating out of 5 or simply given a colour to correspond to its selection status (Select, Second, Approved, Review or To Do). Using review mode I made my initial selections by right clicking on each image that I liked and pressing “Select”. By doing this it marked the shots with a Red bar thus making it very easy to differentiate them from the rest of the 59 photographs.

All Images with Rejected and Selected marked

At this stage I separated my selected (Red) images from all of the others, placed them in their own folder and named it “My Initial Selection”.

My Initial Selection

The image above shows all of my selected shots marked in red.

 

3 First Selects

First Selects shown in Yellow

Using review mode again I looked through the Red shots and chose several best (First Selects) by marking them as “Second” which gave them a Yellow bar.

Image 1

I chose this image because I feel the high contrast of the highlights and shadows provide the shot with drama. The aesthetically placed magpie feather gives a viewer something to focus on and its black and white tones further add to the contrast.

Images 2 and 3

 

I found image 2 to be a pleasing shot and selected it because it clearly portrays the fact that I was in a wood. Image 3 is one of my favourite shots as it’s difficult to capture squirrels with them being so fast moving. I feel I took a sharp and competent shot here. Even though it’s a crop of the original image, the composition still works well and it appears interesting due to the acrobatic skills of the squirrel, clinging on to a tree trunk almost upside down.

Images 4 and 5

 

I chose Image 4 simply because I liked its high contrast but as my eyes are led up the shot, there isn’t anything else to focus on so I definitely won’t be choosing this as one of my final selects. I like how the line of rocks in Image 5 leads my eyes into the shot, it feels like they’re leading me into the forest.

Images 6 and 7

 

Image 6 was selected because of the interestingly obscure angle at which I took it. I like how it appears to be dark at the bottom left where the eye starts to look, then as it moves up the shot, the light gradually appears until clear blue sky is visible. Image 7 is a shot of my girlfriend Lindsay. I chose it because the tones and Lindsay’s clothing shows the viewer that it was obviously a very cold day but the smile on her face shows she’s still happy. I felt that this was important as the shot could be used in a catalogue to advertise a warm comfortable jacket.

Image 8

Finally, Image 8 is my favourite of all the shots. I shall elaborate on this later as I know for definite I’ll choose it as one of my final selects.

 

4 Group and Review

Selects and First Selects after Review

After reviewing the selects (Red) I decided to add three more to the First Selects (Yellow). I added IMG_1195, IMG_1155 AND IMG_1188.

Image 9

I’ve now selected Image 9 for the same reasons as Image 1, I like the contrast and the composition.

Image 10

After reviewing my selections, this shot caught my eye because it’s a slight variation of Image 7. Looking at it now, I think I prefer Image 7, I prefer the composition and Lindsay’s facial expression. I added this one because I wanted a chance to re-compare the two shots.

Image 11

Upon reviewing my selects I decided to add this image because it is very similar to my favourite (Image 8). When choosing my final two shots I can now closely scrutinise both of these shots to decide which I feel is better.

 

5 Final Triage

Final two shots chosen from the yellow First selects

And so I am finally down to my last two shots. I have made my final two selects.

Final Two Selects

 

Image 5

Image 5 is my first final select. I have chosen it because it clearly portrays woodland with added interesting features. The line of rocks lead the viewers eyes straight into the shot from the bottom right up towards the centre, it gives the impression of being lead into the forest. The perfect line of rocks makes me wonder how they got there and who placed them. It has a slight eerie feel, why were they placed in a line? What purpose do they have? For me they lead a viewers eyes into my shot.

Image 8

And finally, Image 8. This is one of the most favourite shots I have ever taken. It is a colour photograph (although hard to tell) of a small river running through Plessey Woods. I especially like its extremely high contrast property, yet the ripples of the water are still clearly visible. The branch in the top right corner breaks up the composition, adding interest and something for a viewers eyes to pan over. The dark areas in the top left and bottom right corners nicely frame the shot and almost look like vignetting but their of appearance in the other two corners tells me that they aren’t. I like the dark eerie feel of this shot. The branch in the top right corner almost looks like it’s reaching out like a hand towards the water as if it’s trying to grab something.

 

Overall I feel that both of my final selects (Images 5 and 8) would go well in a magazine or leaflet informing people about Plessey Woods and advertising it as a nice place to go for walks, take photographs or have a relaxing picnic. Image 8 in particular could be used to illustrate the cover of a creepy book with the title and author’s name written over the top.

Histograms

A histogram ,in photography, is a graphical representation of the tonal distribution in a digital image. The horizontal axis represents the different tones, whereas the vertical axis represents the number of pixels at each tone. It is a standard 8-bit scale of 256 levels, and begins from 0 (black) on the left to 255(white) on the right. By looking at the histogram for a specific image a viewer can judge the entire tonal distribution at a glance and will be possible to tell if any image detail has been lost due to blown-out highlights or blacked-out shadows. Modern digital cameras are able to display a histogram on their screen which can be very useful to photographers as it accurately shows the distribution of tones captured.

Highlight clipping is when image data is lost due to excessive brightness; no detail will be visible in the clipped areas, only pure white will be seen. Shadow clipping on the other hand is when image data is lost do to the lack of any light (complete darkness); no detail will be visible in the clipped areas, only pitch black will be seen.

I found a great site to reference to (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com © Sean Mchugh) where I found the diagram below that clearly shows the different parts of a histogram and what each section represents.

[1] © Sean Mchugh

Low Contrast Images

-1 stop

correct exposure

+1 stop

A low contrast photograph is one that appears flat and has a very small range of tones. My low contrast image is that of a snowy patch of field with the footprints of an animal crossing it. On the histogram the values are squeezed together quite tightly due to the lack of different tones. With the snow being white, the histogram for the correctly exposed image is plotted on the right hand side of the scale because this is where the light tones are. As I increased the exposure by 1 stop, the histogram moved further to the right as the image became brighter. Under exposing the shot by 1 stop moved the histogram to the left because the pixels became darker.

Highlight Clipped Areas

Due to the over exposure of the +1 stop photo, image data has been lost where the sun is hitting the snow (marked in red). The white is too bright for the camera to capture and therefore goes off the scale of the histogram.

Average Contrast Images

-1 stop

correct exposure

+1 stop

A photograph of average contrast is one that appears to contain a lot of different tones so that the image appears to have some depth to it. My average contrast shot is a photograph of some clouds during sun set. At first I found it quite difficult to decide what an averagely contrasting image would look like but took this shot an felt it fit the part although it does border on being low contrast. On the histogram, the values are nicely spread over the tonal range but do not spread to either end of the scale. The histogram for the correctly exposed shot is plotted in the centre of the scale and as the exposure is decreased by 1 stop it moves to the left due to the increase in dark tones. As the exposure is increased by one stop, the histogram moves to the right due to the increase in light tones.

There aren’t any particularly bright or dark areas in this shot and so there hasn’t been any highlight or shadow clipping.

High Contrast Images

-1 stop

correct exposure

+1 stop

A photograph of high contrast is one that has areas of very bright colours and areas of very dark colours. My high contrast shot is a photograph of a sunset across a snowy farmers field. On the histogram, the values are spread over the entire tonal range with bright and dark tones being the most abundant in the correctly exposed shot. As the exposure was decreased by 1 stop the number of dark pixels increased and bright pixels decreased making the histogram high on the left and low on the right. As the exposure was increased by one stop, the opposite occurred; the number of bright pixels increased and dark pixels decreased making the histogram high on the right and low on the left.

Highlight Clipped Areas

The sun is so bright that in all three of the high contrast shots, there was some highlight clipping. The underexposed shot had the most amount of clipping where as the overexposed had the least. There wasn’t any shadow clipping but I feel this was due to the overall brightness of the scene. The snow will have reflected the sun’s light onto the dark areas, meaning that my camera could capture more of their details.

Workflow (Continued)

Attempting to follow my existing workflow I conducted a second shoot. This time I didn’t have a time limit apart from the natural constraints that are the daylight hours. For this shoot, I decided to visit Chester as it contains very interesting, attractive buildings and scenery.

1 Preparation – First of all I chose where I wanted to conduct the shoot (Chester), checked that my battery was fully charged and ensured that my memory card had plenty of space. I use a 16GB SD card in my Canon EOS 500D and carry an empty 8GB card in case I need some extra storage. I made sure my lens and attached filter were dust and smudge free and got all the equipment that I wanted to use out of storage.

2 Camera Settings – I then checked that my desired Saturation, Contrast, Sharpness and Colour Tone settings were correctly set on the camera.

3 Travel to Destination – Next I had to travel to my destination so I decided to drive to Chester with it being only about 45 minutes away where I live.

4 The Shoot – Upon arrival in Chester I began taking photographs of the buildings and scenery. I played around with the White Balance, Focal Length, Angle of view and subjects to constantly strive for a better picture. I began by taking a shot of my girlfriend Lindsay and as we walked through the city I shot buildings, scenery, wildlife and close-up details in the attractive architecture. My workflow slightly differs at this point. I hadn’t finished shooting but I wanted to review what I had been taking pictures of whilst eating lunch.

5 Review/Break/Lunch – After a couple of hours I took a short lunch break, over which I decided to review my shots. There were a few that needed to be deleted straight away due to poor exposure and camera shake.

6 Shooting Continued – After my break I continued to take photographs of Chester and I’m glad I did because I came across a couple of friendly Squirrels playing on a patch of soil. After another couple of hours, the light began to fade so I called it a day.

7 Review and Delete – Before driving home I sat in the car and once again reviewed my shots, deleting the obviously poor.

8 Return Home – This is another additional step in my workflow. At the end of the day I needed to return home before transferring my shots to my computer.

9 Transfer Shots to PC – Upon returning home I took my SD card out of my camera, placed it into my card reader and transferred the RAW Chester photos to a folder on the hard drive.

10 Review again and Delete – After the transfer it was then possible to view my photos in Adobe Bridge using “Review Mode”. This makes it very easy to see which photographs I can instantly Reject due to faults that I may have missed on the on-camera reviews. In total I took around 200 photographs and rejected about 50 straight away. I then continued to whittle my shots down to several best. The lighting was very poor on the day and so I felt most of my shots were pretty terrible. I was left with 15 after several reviews, these can be seen below. I then took a brief break so that I could return to choose the very best photos with a fresh mind.

 

Images 1 + 2

  

Images 3, 4 + 5

  

Images 6, 7 + 8

  

Images 9 + 10

 

Images 11, 12 + 13

  

Images 14 + 15

 

11 Choose Final Images – After a brief break I returned and chose two shots as my final favourite images. These are displayed below.

Best 1 + Best 2

 

12 Retouch – After selecting my final two best shots I decided to retouch one of them slightly to improve it. With “Best 2” I boosted the contrast, converted it to black and white and replaced the sky. I feel I have created an aesthetic, eerie and daunting shot. The high contrast adds interest and a viewers eye is drawn up it and towards the sky. There’s a lot of architectural detail visible which helps to strengthen the composition and keep a viewer interested.

13 Process and Save – With shooting in RAW, after retouching a photograph in Adobe Photoshop, it then has to be saved in a different format. Also converting RAW files to JPEG reduces their file size which takes up less hard drive space and they will upload quicker to a website or blog.

14 Backup Images – I then backed up my selected photographs onto a DVD, which is kept away from my computer to ensure I have a backup of all my work.

15 Print and/or Upload – We have now reached the final stage of my workflow. This is the stage I am doing now, I am uploading my images to this blog and writing about them.

I found that trying to stick to my original workflow worked at first but soon I began to deviate from the plan so that I could take a break and review my images part way through. Another stage was also added, I forgot at first that I would need to return home before being able to transfer my shots to pc. All in all my workflow was practically identical to that of my first shoot, however it contained three extra stages. Having a set plan of how I’m going to conduct a shoot is helpful, but being able to deviate from the plan and then return to it can ultimately mean more shots, better pictures and an overall better result.