Lessons

Lesson Info

The Image Selection Process

So I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about my work for first before we go into anything um I usually start with light room and I'm gonna be opening like room and going through a couple of images, but my process is usually I'd get the image on the computer they're loaded into light room light room is not something I use for everything it's something I used to archive to flag to select it gets me from a thousand images down to one hundred down to ten it's a great way for me to just organize um the other things I use it for is just war adjustments so things like order like white felons so it's good because I can compare an image, especially the day and the light has changed outside in a chute I'm gonna compare an image to another set where it maybe later in the day where the light is different and I just want to use those slightest just to give me an idea of how they look together. So again, I'm not going to go into too much detail about light room because it's not my area it's just some...

thing I use to get to photo shop, okay? I'm just gonna go in and open that, so these are images from yesterday that I've been pre loaded into light room and this is me last night yeah he's good morning going through and going okay trying to figure out with tired eyes what looks good what doesn't so I went down I think I had eight hundred photos from the last two days so I went down to see the body my twenty eight forty selected I'm gonna go through and talk about why I've selected them on which shots have ended it retouching and why so this is from the first look this was me just kind of experimenting with first look it's always hard again with first shoot you do because you never really know how it's gonna come together the styling the model how she's going at that kind of thing so it's not something that I love from the set but it's something that made me look at it and think okay, I can show these guys why did this why choice, innit? Um and I like this just because of the composition there is enough space above and below there's a great shadow just on the right here you could go in and really add like a nice kind of tone like off white tone you could go in and you could use liquefied to just get that composition in the picture and it's a it's a great photo with the light too, so I'm looking at the way the light is the composition the way the model looks too, she have our eyes closed as she had been to the camera um, is the hair looking good? Is a makeup looking get in? Most importantly, is the hero of the schut looking good and that's the outfit? And I think in this shot it does because the trousers that great the way that they're coming down and this angle that year, there was a few pins in that because we got them to hold their vintage so little big honor. Um, so that's fine, we can go in and retouch those out okay, going to the next one, another one from the first set, and what I'd liked about this is the fact that, again, we could talk about the gutter if we were to use this is an editorial spread as a landscape you could kind of crop in a little bit think about the gutter and how you could go in and crop that you could even crop it to a portrait if you wanted so another shot that would give me an option. So I'm also looking at composition I'm looking at the way the clothing looks I'm looking at the way the models look and I know kat her best look was a profile, the way that she had a she had a really sculpted face, her best look was front on I love the weight symmetrical, I love the way that there's some something going on between them, there's, some interaction as well, some more looks from that. Um, so for these shots, I'm just looking at the way the models were interrupted, giving myself a cz many options as possible. So when I start to see an image I love, I'll feel to them first with a flag. So if I met eight hundred photos and I want to get down to one hundred oppressed, pee on my keyboard, or we're all going to hear and open the image and oppressed the flag, so I flagged that image. So when I come down to here and I what filters, I clicked flagged gonna be my selection if I love love a shot, and I'm going in to see if this is gonna cause they roll on five saw anyway, here. So if I love a shot from this siri's or another siri's, I'm going to go in and then use the star function to then further my thing. And I think this is important for photographers that have a lot of photos to shoes from if you only shoot and you're not a quick shooter like me and you more, you're in the decisive moment, and you get, like, twenty shots gonna be easy for you but if you like me and you have to shoot a lot because you're on a time constraint and you gotta get many outfits it's great to use all these functions so five stars so I'm going in on and picking five sorrowful love forced out the options so I'm giving myself the options if I was sending it to a client the five star owens I really love but they even might not work late iran because of the layout depending on how I'm using them it's good to give yourself four star five star they've even three star if a client wants more of you know some kind of option and then I'll then go on and I'll use these functions here so he's a great cause you compress like six, seven, eight, nine and so forth on the keyboard to get these so I'll go in and I'll just click read again for the ones I love and then go down more options so I'm always given myself options whether it's ok this set of photos I want to put in red because I can see them working for the cover of this set of photos I'm using for the green because I want to use him in that way and it's just really good to organize so then you select them you can go on here, you can go filter flagged starred by colored you can have multiple so they're all coming up and it's just by clicking these functions at the bottom here and then you can select them send them to your client give them folders, give them options okay? So I'm just going to go through and again and talk about why I have chosen each one on what the reason is behind it. Okay, so this one have chosen just for them a fact that it's a beauty shot it's good when you shoot in fashion editorials that you do get a good beauty shot in there that you could crop down the middle or you could even crop in into a square format if it's for a campaign dependents again when I shot this giving myself negative space so I can have those options. So for this one, I'm thinking the way that the composition works the interaction between the girls I think both of the girls expressions that grade I don't necessarily like the legs at the bottom because you can't see the like you just seen means and it can look a bit confusing to the few and they're not flattering unless you put loads of makeup on them and they make up artist aware of that it's very difficult to edit nobly knees um so I'm looking at the color again the outfit the way that the outfits worked together the way that the jewel was showing the hats are in there, and they're both coming from the side. Everything in the shot works for me except these knees here, but it could be an option for a client who really just wants to get those dresses, and she doesn't care about how he doesn't care about that. So some of these were more of my favorites from this set. Um, this one, particularly because of the way the light was coming from behind a field, this is cat's best look, the hair looks beautiful, she's got interaction on the viewer. Her pose is great it's, almost like an old kind of an old fashioned portrait. It's classic it's what I was trying to go for, and I feel that I've got enough negative space that if anyone wanted to crop this or work with it, we've got that option. We've got room for text at the top, another one from that, and I whisk it stuck when I have three different images from a set you say, I have this one, this one, this one, and actually my boyfriend this night with sitting next to me and I was like, I was so tired, I was like, james, can you just help me, which one and he was like, I don't know they they will find so they think it's sometimes it's good to get that kind of second opinions sometimes it's good to give those three to the client sometimes it's good to keep got time to retouch all three put them in the layout after one kind of figure out what? What? Well, the reason I would choose this one is because of the option for credit at the top we talked about this on the day the way we left negative face at the top we've got some we've got the hero going on we've got shoes if this was a shoe campaign could kind of see that working as well so we got the jewelry and shot the coat the dress colors everything on the composition worked together well so these were some of my favorites from outside just because I like a bit of crazy style um so these were out with natural light on the balcony outside we used the wide aperture to get that kind of depth going out in the background um and I think these three a really hard to pick through at a hard time when I was speaking through these knowing which one to choose and these are the reasons why it chose all three interaction between the models even though this is more of a commercial look because of the way the girls interacting I think it's just great because sometimes a client might like that sometimes that I often shoot both more happy shots I know shoot more edgy shots and I think that's important because I started the day sometimes I'll have an idea that I wanted to be more commercial and I'll get there and I'll be like a cape this is not working commercially the girls are not given me enough let's try what they looked faster and if they're moody and they're standing there in that kind of annoyed I'm like okay let's take it in that direction because it could work so it's good to give both and sometimes models will like the fact that you change it up asked him for happy boys is asked him for this give yourself options but only if you have time as well. So for this one um and this is one of chosen to edit made iran I like the way that the girls are positioned yeah, this is the one have chosen to edit this is kind of close that I love the way that girl's position the things that distracted me and these four walls at the top, the lights but I've taken them out in the shot and I'm going to show you how I would approach that um the only thing that bothers me it's the legs the position of the legs could go in and cross a little bit you could live with it just take the leg fighting too prove the composition I'm elected interaction I think that the outfits that great, this detail there, they complement each other, I love their expressions in the way that they're both consistently style the way that came for you. We're looking for consistency, and again, the hero being the clothing looks great. And this one I love this one because I think I just something about the composition kind of pulls me off. Um, something about it that I just like from the weight looks I could I've given never negative space and it's not a usual kind of cuts like a typical cover shot, but it's an option c when you shooting cover shots, give yourself options, give you self shots where there could be girls far away could be girls. Walking down the street is a full length, and it could be some beauty shots because you're gonna get more of a chance to get a cover if you give that editor options and the same for advertising as well. If you give this to look book or a different client, they're gonna appreciate that you give him those options, but also don't give him too many. If you go in and give him two hundred shots, and they have to sift through that, I run like this sunday afternoon, when they just, you know, they don't work the weekend, so they're like, so that they're not gonna like that, and they're gonna choose bad shots just from, like, poor judgment. So some of the beauty shots we did on day one, um, and you see the light that we used to be flats to bring that depth into the shot to bring her out from the background. So again, looking at this, the way the light falls on the face, when we're looking at beauty, we're looking at the detail in the skin we're looking at, the way the hair looks, if it's a beauty shot for an accessory, we're looking at the way the product looks in the shot, but I've also given some options here without the glasses, because sometimes that might work for a cover. This might not work for cover. This might work, okay, and again, with the arms a great cover, your nose will always have, like, well positioned arms, the way that the model's head is turning its engaging towards the camera, and I've given myself that negative space above that, too, and this one just because I think that the clothing looks square if this was the hero was the necklace this will be great for that these kind of clothing in dense and these don't distract me too much if you were picky and it was it was the client was picky you could go in and use like a dodge and burn to get rid of those and it's easy to do may take a bit of time but I think that this works well four covers show option as well so I'm just going to quickly go through these few so why I chose thes from day to pure natural light in the background um in the background sorry so early around when I was showing you my retouched un retouched shots the one with the girl with the blue dress when I said I edited the light back in afterwards the contrast this is how we would approach thes they're dull but it's fine if a client looked at this in the back of my camera and said, oh no you know the clothing doesn't look so bright that sin that I would say okay, we'll match that up afterwards don't worry I maybe showing example of my work as well and these because of the way the model is engaging with the camera the way that the crown looks on the head the beautiful hair I know alex would appreciate the shot um often when hera maker for onset they would love they would say to me sometimes can you just give me that shot just for the hair even though that the way the light looks some things really bad for me I don't like you can't have it because my photography looks fat in it it's just really great to maybe get a shot like this and get the hair in the best light but this's without the crown and the necklace this could be a shot for hair company so think about the way that those things will come together and this one as well and the only thing that distracts me about this is the way the hands are positioned the way the army is kind of falling a little bit here the competition is a little bit frightened off but that's something I can see and I know that I could probably liquefy the I'm just a little bit so it doesn't have that odd curves and not to say that she needs look refining anyway just sometimes liquefies great for composition and a ll that kind of thing. So these were the leaf shots from the set over by this window with natural light coming from the background with the high iron to bring that fruit um and these were these were shot dead I wasn't sure whether to go with the landscape or the portrait but when you choose a portrait for an editorial, you're covering one page when you've got a landscape you covering, too, so unless it's a strong, strong landscape shot, I wouldn't bother to include because you're taking up two pages when you get in a strong portrait shot think about how this could go with another step, so maybe this is the shot that could go with one of these because there's a similar background is a similar element there and then this one because I like the fact that I've gone and seemed in that may be the dress the front of the dress is something that in a magazine people would want to see that the designer wants to show us the most, so I gave myself an option of a full length, which is always important. I've given myself an option of the crop, too, and again, I've given myself an option of the two girls, even though this isn't my favorite shot. If I'd have had more time to shoot these, I'd have gone in experimented further took the two girls over to a different section. I just spent at least half an hour, forty minutes on each look with one girl with two goes, um and she's like the shoes you take around eight hours or so so you can start to see when you've got limited selections as well, it's tough, but give yourself options these were from over on this they're westcott backdrop is a texture um and we had one soft bucks again one light nothing too complicated just from the side down at the right angle facing towards the model the light gives death we've got the v flats on either side to give step the shadows um it will emit light so that the shadow's air here on the site and they bring their off the background without those she would have blended in and they wouldn't have been so much like visual interest I think that's important when you're shooting fashion because again the clergy and you want that in the best light this dress was actually this was the front of the dress and the secret was the back of the dress so it's important to find a position that that model may sit in a swell I got this shot I chose the shot because I like the way her expression is I like the hat I like the light on the face um I don't necessarily like the hand pose which is why I've gone in and chose this one a bit later on and this is the one I've chosen to retouch later for that very reason I've gone in and chosen that one because I see that there's just something there in the shot the kind of engages me I love the fact that she's just relax and this came actually when she was just kind of like chilling out you know sometimes it's best just to let models chill out a little bit shake up their pose and then often the best shots come from that as well this shot because sometimes it's good to get a profile in there it just changes the story of a little bit if it's for a client if it's run editorial we don't want shots of the model engaging the audience the entire time you want shots maybe where the eyes are looking away where there's a profile where maybe the hair comes into play where maybe it's just about the clothes and the jewelry that you're in the shot and then some off mariana on the backdrop again so going from this backdrop moving the light just a little bit more and facing more flat onto her that brings the light in the background and these images a great edit back on white so when I'm looking at this kind of shot I'm saying okay there's a lot of nice contrast there and I am I'm always tending to go two more black and white then I am color when I'm doing more contrast it studio work because that's just the way that my work works best but if you were to see this in at color you could maybe at that kind of vintage yellow tone to the image you can play with selective color well cubs to get something out of that I think they these work better for black and white because they lend themselves more towards a style in the era of the clothes the vintage silent and another one as well and why I have chosen the shot again you can see the cloven I tried this sitting down and it didn't work and the reason was because it's important to get that flow in the dress the frill decreases in the dress, the color the structure of the shoulder so after shooting this is the cover I would crop him just before the waste here go in and have her symmetrical with shoulders since important went selecting to figure out what is the structure of the clothing isn't flowy does she need to have wind tohave the dress? Does she need to have retouching that will complement that? Or is it about the tone and the kind of era of the clothing that lends itself more towards the retouch and style? You're going to go to this one from the end? This wasn't my favorite shoot of the day because it really pushed for time and the light changed and everything going a bit crazy but it's fine because I wanted to show you guys that often I shoot things like this from shooting editorial and I've got ten outfits at least two outfits never make it in because I just don't like shots we're pushed for time the light was bad the models didn't look good the models were getting grump because it was towards the end of the day and they didn't want to give me an expression but it's okay to have that because sometimes a client will just requested and nail sita as well okay, have we got any questions? Because I think that's a for the light room bit and then we're gonna yep three questions in the audience a couple questions first one is crapping I look at a lot of your work you seem to keep the two by three to the three ratio is that important? Is there like a preference? I don't go by the composition rules I go a little bit out of the box and that's definitely something I've lived with time the way that I kind of crossed my work in the way that stylized it is just from the way that I've just growing my vision but it's important when you are shooting to kind of bare in mind how it works where is the composition where the models heads? Where is the interaction going on? Where is the clothing how the light kind of works with the composition so instead of light and this is just because I'm not a technical photographer and that's okay because that's my technique but other photographers in different I think it's important if you are technical photographer to be aware of those things if you're like me and you just kind of just want to experiment and figure out what works that will come naturally, your composition and the way you see like rule of thugs, that kind of thing, it will just come naturally without even thinking of it anymore. So you mentioned spending, you know, eight hours, not having the time spent eight hours retouching skin is that what would be the average amount of time that you spend? Retouching something that's, a wedding photographer? You know, eight hours that's, tryingto be what I'm doing, all of my image is not just one so that's a really important question, I think stars of what clique yourself, it's great maybe to do something like in action, so you record something you do that might be like tones of color, and you process that you don't need to do beauty skin because bryce, certainly that you need to do a quick skin edit with clone and you're done. You don't have that time to spend on that that's not where your businesses for when I'm doing beauty work. It's important for me to know that the client is looking at the work and they're looking for great skin, the product is maybe the moisturizer with a makeup so it's important, I take those things into account with fashion work again the skin is important, but when it's more of a full length or fire away shot it's not so important so I'm focusing more on the eight hour work for the six hour for when I've got a beauty image that's close up because that's what people are gonna pick on you haven't got the clothes to come for back and you've got the skin you've got the make up and everything so those need to look perfect and right for the client yes have you used that and you like white room better? Or is it just this is what you've always I've always used light room just because it's something I kind of fell upon and went into that, but again, if you come a role that's great, I know some people use um different programs um and that's fine like light room just works for me because the archival system as the one recommended to me one day and show me how like the basics of it worked before that I would just kind of get photos on my desktop kind of look freedom on the previous and compare, but I feel that when you're using raw shots but you should always use raw when you're doing shoots like this, especially with an actual life because you need to keep that detail it's important to use a program like this because you have that ultimate control or camera roll because you have that control over the ruhr shot on such is the white balance or the contracts and all that kind of thing that will bring to the table, okay, cool, right? Maybe just a couple of questions, unless topic would be awesome from sara. Kate, you've said that you do gun for these, that you like different parts of different photos. Do you ever composite the best parts of different images, too, from the same set to get the best composition? Or do you consider that cheating? So I consider that what? Some cheating, cheating? Um, no it's, not cheating. I know many photographers that do it. I don't think I'm definitely not the type of person to say someone's technique is wrong isn't wrong because everyone is, too to their own vision and that's ok, the end result is what matters so when people do that that's great for them, because that works for what they're going for for me, it's very time consuming thing to match, maybe an eye up to another, I, but there has been times, especially in the past two years where maybe like an eye or an irish guy doesn't look good, or the light isn't falling right in one of the eyes, so I take that and place it over to the other. I, um, I've seen people do it where they they want symmetry, and they take one half of the photo and flip it and turn it around, but what's important about that is you taken away similar elements, so you don't want to side of the picture just the same, maybe it's just the face that he wants symmetrical but it's important to feel how the composition works, and if it looks photoshopped, it looks flipped and added it, like added in then it's not gonna work? Uh, when we're looking at a general broad issues, what is the crop ratio for a two page spread slash centerfold that would be down to the magazine that's? Not something I can give you kind of like a roundabout number on, I think it's, just important to kind of think when you shoot in to give you self space, don't crop because you couldn't with crop after, especially when you're shooting raw and at the highest setting, you can afford to lose some of the crop, so when you're shooting for a magazine or if you're working on a job often I just did a campaign for goldsmiths, and they sent me the layout because it was a banner they wanted me to shoot really far out for that banner could be note the whole shot. In between. They sent me visual references. They came with the references on the shoot, so they say, this is what we need. They tethered it, looked at it and came back to it. If you're working for a magazine, maybe it's important, especially online, and I don't have the editor of the fashion editor there on the day, it's, just important to maybe ask that after, and if it works for them.