Ah, the joys of editing. And by joys I mean soul crushing pain. I’m joking of course but unless I’m on deadline I am not such a big fan of sorting through my failures to try to find the nuggets of gold, few and far between they be. So now it’s time for another episode of editing 101.
I came across the funky homosapian in Barcelona last fall at a demonstration. He seemed to be a solid, middle class kinda guy (note the sport jacket) who was just walking by and decided to join in the fun, at least that is the sense I got. So I hung around for a while because, well just look at him. That is a photo waiting to happen.
And as happens quite often whether you are photographing a birthday party or a night out on the town you are stuck with lots of very similar photos! Oh what to do you ask? Well the first thing is you cut out any photos with major defects (blurry, closed eyes, weird angles, unless of course, that’s the look you’re going for, God help you). Being at such a high level (insert laugh here) my photos have few glaring defects but some are stronger than others. The first photo is pretty good but it has too much depth of field for my taste and the background is a little too busy and not quite interesting enough, again for my taste. Others might see the image and fall in love but then look at the second image. The depth of field is handled a bit better, the background is kinda interesting. In this case the background serves to aid the subject, something we are always aiming for at Damaso’s school of cooking and photography.
If we were doing a photo essay on this guy this is what we would call the establishing shot, or the first shot in a series. Note the shallow depth of field which allows the eye to concentrate on our funny fellow here. The reason I include this image is because when you are shooting it’s important to try to capture different views of the same subject even if you end up not using them. In this case the photo is well executed enough but is kinda dull. Especially when you consider the following image…
A nice tight shot. We have some drums and tambourines in the background for added spice but they are not enough to seriously distract us. And look at his face! There is a man who knows how to have a good time. For me this is the most interesting image. Of course in six months or six years I might change my mind. That is what editing is all about. I hope this gives you a little bit of insight into how this photojournalist works. That will be all…
