Photo Editing 101
I have been extremely busy for the last few weeks (explaining the drop off in blog postings) and the busy has been compounded by being the temporary boss while my boss is on vacation. That has given me several opportunities to contemplate photo editing and to participate in the editorial budget meetings and watch others who are not trained in photography or in photo editing edit photos. For all of you who work in small newspapers I know you are already visibly cringing. I know that my guts have been churned more than once recently and it has caused me to stop and think about editing and I think that I will do a few posts on the fine art of photo editing. I want to keep this pretty straightforward because some of you guys may be word editors or have very little exposure to photo editing in the newspaper world.
I am coming at this series of posts assuming a couple things. First of all that the photographer is not working directly under the supervision of a photo editor. That would be the case for most small newspapers and for some mid-size newspapers and maybe even a few large newspapers. This means that the photographer is the first editor in the chain of command. Some of the time, we consult one another as we edit a job but we don’t have a photo editor who looks at the take with us and helps, or just flat out makes, the editing decisions. At The Decatur Daily, we generally edit a shoot down to between two and six photos for news and sports and up to about eight to ten photos for living. As a disclaimer here, some sports jobs require significantly more images and we may send thirty to sixty images back.
The second assumption is based on the first. Since you don’t have a photo editor, word editors or even the layout editors are the ones making final image selections. This may or may not include input from the photographer. At The Daily, we have what I would term limited input into the photo editing process. There is no polite way for me to express my personal feelings about this so I will leave that alone. Obviously, there can be a little frustration for a photographer in the process.
Lets begin at the beginning, editing your take. If you remember when we talked about assembling your portfolio, I said that you should hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em often. When you edit your take you need to remember this. You want your lead photo to really sing. There may be several really nice photos from a given assignment and it is tough to edit your own work so how do you find THAT photo? Think about the purpose of photos in the newspaper. Photos are the strongest visual element on a page and all kinds of research indicates that readers will move on quickly if the photos or the headlines do not pull them in. When you edit, look for the picture that has the power to draw the reader into the page and hold them there. Look for things like expression, emotion and impact in your images with people. Composition is also useful in helping hold the person’s attention. Lines that lead the eye into a photo and hold it there are excellent visual tools.
You also must keep in mind the story. You may have a great photo that has little or nothing to do with the story. The photo may really sing but if it doesn’t relate to the story it will never run. Hold it out for a standalone if you can. If not, you just have to pass on it. I am not an advocate for the idea that the person in the reporter’s lead has to be in the dominant photo. That is such a handicap to excellent visual reporting that I need not say more. It is a double bonus if your best image also has the person in the reporter’s lead; however, I don’t think that is a prerequisite for a lead photo. If you turn that reasoning around you can see how illogical it really is. What if you made the reporter rewrite his story so that the person in the dominant photo is the one he must have in his lead paragraph? See, it doesn’t make sense. Okay, I’m stepping down off my soap box now. But you still have to tell the story.
Look at the readability of the photo objectively. This means you have to pretend that you don’t know you had to outrun a pack of starving wolves, fjord a creek and climb a tree to get the shot of the mayor kissing the baby. The reader won’t know anything about what you went through to get the picture, he will only know if it grabs him. Objectively then, does the photo stop you? Are you compelled to ask questions about the photo? Does the photo cause an emotional reaction? Now you are getting it. Oh, and you usually have to do all of this really, really fast. There is a deadline you know! Oh, and there is usually a page editor standing around wanting to know why the photo wasn’t done two hours ago. Did I mention that there will be three or four other people giving you stuff to do at the same time?
Final question for this post is will the editors/readers understand the photo? I have seen some really excellent photographs that are simply too complex for anything other than a museum where the visitor has time to contemplate the meaning of life and stuff like that. In the newspaper world, you have to be a bit more direct. In other words, punch the reader in the face visually, not literally. Of course not literally. Well, maybe a couple of readers, NO, I am under control. I will only punch visually! Really! Back to the point. Make sure the photo can be read and understood in the micro-second world of instant communication. Folks are digesting the news quickly these days so don’t give them visual heartburn.
I am including several pictures from one recent assignment. It is the season of giving and lots of people are helping others have a Merry Christmas. This job had Daisy Scouts and Cub Scouts packing gift boxes for less fortunate folks. I am only going to need one photo from this job so give it your best shot. I have edited a take of about 35-40 frames down to these five. Find me a lead picture and post your pick in the comments. Have fun and don’t worry too much about that editor breathing down your neck.
Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
I’ll go for the 4th.
Shot #4: The two girls in the foreground are large enough to say to the reader, “Hey, you should look at us and what we’re doing.” The woman in the background and the other two girls communicate that it’s a group project; the colorful boxes provide the visual clue that they’re all helping with a Christmas project.
Would cropping so that the lady in blue is out be cheating?
I’d say shot #3, but I’d crop out the woman in light blue and the two heads in the foreground. The blurry hand in shot #4 is a little distracting to me.
I agree with number 4 cropping out the far right blue lady..
Will a word or layout editor look at every shot or will they choose a final couple to select from purely from thumbs? If I was going by thumbs I’d instantly thin to 4 or 5.
Looking at them properly…
1. too far out…. no attention grabber.
2. shoebox front right distracts
3. heads front left distract…. if you crop them out there’s not enough left on the table for a strong image.
4. kids, gifts and boxes. winner.
5. hand bottom left distracts.
My money is on shot #4.
Edit #4. Totally agree with the comment about the hand in #5, it was up on my monitor for ~ 1.5 secs before I kicke it. #1 might make it, it draws the eye to the back and makes me wonder what she was talking about.
#4. For me, it’s easier to choose by looking at the thumbnails than the full-size images. If it works well small, it’ll work even better bigger.
shot#4 Look at the expressions on those little faces!
They all look cluttered to me
I’d say #4 - there are kids to be seen packing stuff (for others), I think kids work better to draw a gaze. In the other pictures the adults are so dominant.
I would pic the last one. Number one has a stong line leading up to someone explaining something. It’s not about packing gifts. second one leads up to an empty window. three and four look like a mother is explaining something to the kids. well she probably is but it takes away from the iamge to the story. (oh and the kids look more like they are unpacking for some reason that I’ll have to figure out)
Number five is the one I would run with cause the kids are concentrated, but not to a point where there’s no more fun in helping, they do so alone (as they are helping), the kid grabing the image makes a nice visual line to the faces of the kids in the foreground. The kids in the background are not distracting. The one “flaw” is the hand in the front. But then again it does make for a divider, dividing the image into three triangles along with the kids hand streching out.
cheers
Off topic and a mild complaint: What is it about your blogging software that overpowers my Firefox settings and generates those execrable windowns that come up when I mouse over the images? If it’s something you can control, please turn it off. I find they distract me from what you are trying to do. And they get me steamed too.
Thanks. …edN
Got to be #4 it’s got it all1
Shot Number 4 all the way!
well, i find 1 to be the most visually interesting, but i think that #4 does the best job of telling the story in the most direct way; when i looked at it my first thought was “oh, kids putting stuff into boxes.”
EdN: pull down the little menu widget and tell the thing not to do that in future. Works in firefox.
The Winner Is . . . #4. The fourth photo is the one most of you identified and that was the photo I offered from this assignment. This was a standalone assignment, meaning it was not going with a story, so I only submitted one photo. The final crop was the one most of you suggested with the hand and blue blouse on the right eliminated. So BRAVO. You have chosen wisely!
One of the things I do to pick a photo from my assignments is to gather them together (as you have here) and see which one my eye goes to first.
Using this basis, I’d chose # 5, because of the hands reaching into the table. I also liked #4, because it’s also a closer photo than the first three.
So, I’d look at #5 first, and if there was some reason (focus in wrong spot, bad expression on one of the faces are two examples) that I couldn’t use it, I’d go for # 4.
One of the things I’ve found, though, is that page editors will often pick a photo because they need either a horizontal or vertical shot to work best on a page. (Sometimes they’ll say that, most times they won’t.)
PS: I wrote this before reading any of the comments, so if it duplicates others, I’m sorry.
Without looking at the rest of the comments, my thought process went like this:
1 out (The woman at the end of the table is giving a speech? That’s not the story)
2 out (Focus of the image seems to be the blown out window, eyes go to that before hitting the kids or presents)
3 out (Still a little to busy, too many competing elements)
4 out (Is the story parents helping kids with a task? No, but the woman on the left could be cropped out and this would be the runner up)
5 selected (focus is on the kids, selecting toys. Is that the story? Yes? Woo! Ding ding ding) Arm on the left doesn’t bother me too much, and I prefer the kids on the right to be actively reaching for the gifts.
Edit #5 would be my pick. The arm coming in, seems to imply ‘a helping hand’ where the kids seem to be doing the most work. I think it could be the strongest composed as well. Just my $0.02.
Number #4 and here’s why. The little girl’s elbow and arm on the right side lead you into the photo. The little girl standing next to her brings you farther into the image. Then adult on the left side is wearing a dark color which her hand stands out in the foreground.Her hand is pointing in. You have a natural line between both “end” persons, you have faces and you have good expression. Top it off with people actively doing something. None of the other shots have what #4 has.
After typing all of this, THEN I notice David has already posted the answer. Darn good thing it was #4.
I would say #4 for several reasons. First is because of the expressions on the two girls in the forground. They appear to be working well together and have very different expressions.
The second is that there are many lines that lead to the package the two forground girls are working on. One has a bright arm leading to the package while the second girl is facing us and directly at the package.
Third is the adult and two girls in the background are all in line which again leads to the package.
So it has emotion from the expressions of the girls and leading lines that all lead to a common point.
Bill
I was finally able to finish setting up my first blog! Hopefully 2008 will be the year i will to make some money blogging, instead of losing money on all those ebooks i purchased. Anyway keep up the good work, i subscribed to your feed. Hopefully you will keep droping those little gems of advice that i just love to gobble up. I also commented on a few other post. Sorry im just so excited!! Thanks again.If you have time check out my blog and Happy New Year!Michelle, HostGator Coupons