I avoid editing like the plague. Well, that’s not true. I’ve never been near the plague and I’m not certain how I’d react, but editing is a task that I put off, forget, avoid, and fear. Why?
- It’s depressing how many bad photos you take compared to how many good ones, and hilarious compared to the great ones. I’m still not sure I’ve taken a great photo yet.
- My aesthetic taste is developing. It takes time to think, make decisions, and in the end I’m not always sure that I’ve made the right one.
- I’m often not certain about what it is that I’m looking for. Essentially I’m not sure what I’m trying to say and without such a standard, without such criteria, it is difficult to decide between one photo or another.
- I’m shooting a lot, which means there is large overhead in sitting down to edit.
- I haven’t really looked into what Lightroom can do and all the little tricks and efficiencies. I’m getting better all the time though (see some of the breakthroughs from yesterday’s shooting notes).
- Editing involves judgement, and although it’s my judgement, it makes me think of being judged by others, and then of the difficulties in the industry, blah, blah, blah. Not good feelings.
How the situation will get better.
- Accept that most photos will be bad. I’m learning, and most experienced shooters go through the same pain. Think about all of the things that I’m doing to get better and get more useable photos.
- Keep on looking at the work of others and asking editing questions of whether I would’ve chosen a particular image, or mad a set a certain way. Think a write about the process of editing more.
- This is the fun of taking photographs: exploring the world again. Editing is a process of rediscovery, looking again at what you’ve seen before. Take pleasure in the seeing itself rather than concentrating on success and what others will think of them, or whether they will be saleable.
- Some of the pain of editing will be unavoidable. It is an attempt to think hard about what you want to say and how you want to say it and whether that’s original and meaningful or not. Of course it’s going to be a little difficult in some places.
- Learn more of Lightroom and think about what features can help to make the process of reviewing a lot of images easier. But really, this isn’t the big problem.
- Stop thinking about other people. Focus on the job at hand: getting better. Doubts, like counter revolutions are poisonous and must be crushed with more work.
Posted 2 years ago
