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.
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