do you have an editor?

back alley

back alley

IMAGES
Local time
9:19 AM
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Messages
41,289
who edits your images?

if it's only you then do you think it might be a good idea to find an editor?

how might an editor help you?

one of my ex wives was a good photographer but she was a great editor!

she would look over my contact sheets and circle the images she thought i should work on. often times i would not agree with her choices but after playing in the darkroom would find she was right in her initial assessment.

i post many shots on flickr but often think i need a separate website for edited images that are my better ones.

so, editor or not?


joe
 
The world is my editor. I ignore editors. It's not that I know what's best, it's that I don't care. I just like what I like.
 
I regularly use three friends as editors. Couldn't do without them. They judge pictures by different criteria, and I do not always agree with them all, but in the end I manage to weed out the weak work.
 
I fall between Bill and Al on this one. I'll occasionally bounce an idea off Galfriend when I'm somewhat in doubt about something, but otherwise I do my own dead-reckoning. At this point in my life, if I can't tell what works from what sucks, I'm truly sunk.


- Barrett
 
I was the Editor-in-Chief for a year on the photo magazine my college ran. So that experience has made me great at editing down my own work. Occasionally I will ask a few close friends for feed back when it comes to similar images.
 
While I'm not so bad at selecting the best of others' work, I have learnt not to trust my judgement when my own work is involved. To be ruthless one needs objectivity.
 
bmattock said:
... It's not that I know what's best, it's that I don't care. I just like what I like.
Click to expand...

That pretty much sums it up for me too. My photography is a personal thing and, whilst I like to get feedback from others on images that I 'make public', what gets out there is down to me alone.

Because of that, I think an editor would only confuse things.


back alley said:
one of my ex wives was a good photographer but she was a great editor!
Click to expand...


How many ex editors do you have? :eek: :D
 
I quite enjoy hearing others' feedback on which frames they enjoy the most versus my favorites, but in the end all of my photographs are for me, and it comes down to which I like the most.
Were I working for any other reason though, from selecting images for a gallery show or a newspaper, I would be eager to find someone to confer with (not defer to).

payasam said:
To be ruthless one needs objectivity.
Click to expand...

Which is obviously possible in art, right? ;-)
 
My partner has a great eye and when I've put the images I've chosen together for a book I get her to have a look because she always has a great suggestion when it comes to seeing how certain images work together.
 
I largely self edit, but get opinions from a small number of people whose opinions I respect. I can usually call them though, because I know their views on things. I find they cover the full gamut and so although one editor might not like all the images, between them they at least get my perspective on each shot and so can comment from a position of understanding (whether positive or negative). Women do seem rather good at it....

I agree in principle however, that the photographer's view matters above all because if you give up on that, you are done with. i find sometimes that an image that is generally not supported strongly by those whose views I seek will be the outright favourite of a small number of other people. It is therefore really important to follow your instincts otherwise diversity dries up.
 
There are two kinds of professional editors: those who make helpful suggestions, and those who try to impose their own vision. Although it is a delight to work with the former, I have encountered enough of the latter that I have a deep and abiding suspicion of anyone else's attempts to edit my work.

Having said that, Frances and I normally go through pics together.

Cheers,

Roger
 
A couple good friends (also photographers and good ones too) help me when I'm stuck, but I generally edit solo. An exception is work I do for a cycling magazine, in which case I actually have a for-real editor. I am fortunate in that he's an excellent editor and specifically wants those who shoot for him to do what they do best and not impose his ideas on them.
 
chris000 said:
That pretty much sums it up for me too. My photography is a personal thing and, whilst I like to get feedback from others on images that I 'make public', what gets out there is down to me alone.

Because of that, I think an editor would only confuse things.





How many ex editors do you have? :eek: :D
Click to expand...

only one ex editor...a few ex wives...
 
Editing has to be in context. The best stand alone picture from a shoot might not be the most effective as part of a page layout, or convey the right meaning. You're not going to shoot nothing but fantastic photos every time, but you should be able to come back with a good selection of useable photos.
 
I learnt never to trust solely my own jugement about editing.
other people have a very different perception of certain images, specially when the shot describes a "strong" situation.
BUT
I also learnt to make the final choice by myself. Putting your trust blindly into someone else's edit can lead to things you didn't intend (had such an experience lately, the edit was great and effective, but carried a message I really didn't intend to)
 
I'm best at editing my own pictures (take 100 pics and pare this down to the 28 best) as well as editing a particular picture (do I crop it vertically or horizontally?). The end product that results is invariably better than other people's suggestions.

Jim B.
 
I think that often the emotional tags we place on an image give it an importance that is lost on others. I have a friend who is a professional artistic curator, call her an editor if you wish.

If ever I want to know and classify what is my best work currently ... I ask her.
 
One of my pics -- the Dikteion cave, birthplace of Zeus -- has twice been used full-page, once in a book, once in Shutterbug. I can't really see why, but I'm not arguing. If I've sorted out (say) 15 pics for an article (up to 10 to be used) or 200-250 pics for a book (all to be used), I know that the sizing and layout will vary quite widely from one editor or layout artist to another.

But one layout artist was fired after resizing images in one direction (vertically or horizontally) to make them fit his layouts. THAT makes insensitive crops look trivial (and I've had my share of those, even after the Polaroid has been marked up and signed by the art director).

Cheers,

R.
 
What happens to a picture after it's sold is seldom under the control of the photographer; but Joe wanted to know, it seems to me, how photographers decide which pictures to (in effect) discard.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom