cant decide on edits ?

copperhead · 21-10-2018 7:39pm #1

am i the only person here that cant decide on a final edit
sometimes i have 5 or 6 edits of the same image with minor adjustments !!

uck51js9zml2yt · 21-10-2018 7:50pm

Its really down to your mood on the day in most cases....at least for me it is!

OldGoat · 22-10-2018 8:57am

Nope, I'm ruthless. Never look back!

Your first instinct for an composition/edit tends to be your best and unless I've learnt a new technique to apply then I'll seldom if ever return to an old edit.

magicbastarder · 22-10-2018 9:03am

what OldGoat said.
also helps with editing is being ruthless with pruning photos. have three photos which you're happy with, but they're very similar so you can't choose between them? pick two at random and delete.

Kenny Logins · 22-10-2018 9:21am

That's why Lightroom works so well - it's non-destructive and you can have as many edits (snapshots) on a photo as you like. Come back later and one will stand out.

copperhead · 22-10-2018 11:36am

Kenny Logins wrote: »

That's why Lightroom works so well - it's non-destructive and you can have as many edits (snapshots) on a photo as you like. Come back later and one will stand out.

yea it great that way i also find it sometime takes a few days of comming back and looking at an edit

Morrisseeee · 22-10-2018 10:56pm

Somedays > you just 'know', others > you'll persist with trying to do something but......it aint happenin!

CabanSail · 23-10-2018 2:39am

Use the same workflow and end up with a fully editable PSD. It can then be converted to the required output.

Mike Litoris · 23-10-2018 7:11am

CabanSail wrote: »

Use the same workflow and end up with a fully editable PSD. It can then be converted to the required output.

I started saving everything as PSD recently. The file size is f**kin huge! :eek: It's forced me not to hold on to every shot I took.

Homer · 23-10-2018 8:14am

Mike Litoris wrote: »

I started saving everything as PSD recently. The file size is f**kin huge! :eek: It's forced me not to hold on to every shot I took.

The downside of storage becoming really cheap is that I now do store everything and end up being less ruthless in the culling process!

OldGoat · 23-10-2018 8:52am

A good oul purge of the files is cathartic.

magicbastarder · 23-10-2018 8:54am

Mike Litoris wrote: »

It's forced me not to hold on to every shot I took.

do people do this? first thing i do before i start any editing, when i sit down at the computer, is to start hitting the delete button.

awec · 23-10-2018 1:42pm

I haven't been doing it but really need to. You end up with thousands of RAW files, many of which are complete garbage.

I'll probably start only keeping yeses and maybes, and delete the nos.

CabanSail · 24-10-2018 12:11am

I have recently been revisiting some RAW files from years ago. Many of them I probably would have deleted at the time if I was short of storage space, but didn't. Looking back now I can see things in those "rejects" of the time which can be used now. Some as images on their own and others using just a part in another composition.

Be careful what you throw away, a future you may not thank you for it.

Mike Litoris · 24-10-2018 3:43am

magicbastarder wrote: »

do people do this? first thing i do before i start any editing, when i sit down at the computer, is to start hitting the delete button.

I exaggerated there a bit!

There is always the initial purge but I still hold on to too many I think. That slightly different angle and focal length of the same shot.

I'm getting better though and as Old Goat said it is usually the first instinct pick that looks the best anyway.

Portlawslim · 24-10-2018 8:30am

I like to rate an image after I've imported them, 3 stars to 5 stars. Then delete the remaining unrated ones. Leave them a day or two and go back and have another look, try a few edits see if their working for me and then re-rate them accordingly. Then cull the non keepers!
#Ruthless :)

Adrian.Sadlier · 27-10-2018 1:54am

I tend to upload, edit and post images almost the same/next day as shots are taken.

Then I let them stew for a while. I often find myself going back to images I passed over before.

Recently I decided to do a cull as I had kept most images I had taken (over 100K). I deleted about 50K images - it took a long time). But I came across old images I had ignored at the time. I like to think that I kept them because I saw "something" in the image but I didn't know how to bring it out. Case in point,: one image (a portrait) I took in 2008 but never processed. Last year when doing my cull I came across it finally and knew how I wanted to process it and at last had the skill to do so. Except for the first few months, I always shot and kept RAW files. (Edits are saved in PSD and jpeg are created via LR as needed but rarely kept long term).

In entered into the DCC Winter League and it won the overall digital image in the advanced section

Not bad for a 9 year old, 10mp image taken on a D80, competing against up to 50mp camera output!

My usual workflow now is to upload images to my computer. Do a quick pass and delete everything that is oof, blurred or obviously crap.

I then do a second pass and delete images that are nearly the same and keep the better version. This gets me down to about 40-50% of the shots uploaded (sometimes less, sometimes zero!).

I will process a few and post them. The better ones go on sites where I can get honest critical feedback and suggestions (no fanboy stuff). And I often re-edit it based on feedback (I get too excited when processing/posting and often miss obvious flaws).

And I keep going back over old images every now and then. Finding the odd gem and deleting a lot more crud!

Storage is cheap (I have 30+ TB including all backup copies).

the_syco · 27-10-2018 2:13am

Unless on https://www.reddit.com/r/photoshopbattles/ the only editing I do is placement of watermark and resize so longest size is 800pixels for this forum, or Facebook, etc. Watermark would be "hidden" within the picture, to prevent someone cropping out my name. Rarely do people spot it without me pointing it out, as it could look part of the building, tree, etc unless you knew where to look.

OldGoat wrote: »

A good oul purge of the files is cathartic.

My 14,000 or so RAW photos that I took since I went to Canada two years ago, and still have not being processed, do not agree with you :pac:

But then again, I hoard

magicbastarder · 27-10-2018 9:34am

i just checked; in my photos folder, i've 18,000 photos. bought my first camera in 1994.

CelticRambler · 31-10-2018 2:59pm

My inner procrastinator is delighted to see this thread! I've just returned from an extended tour of the States with just over 3200 images. I tried to do a daily review and purge, but ... well, meeting people and "doing stuff" interfered with the process at an early stage and it was too dispiriting to deal with the back-log using only a tablet and crappy internet connections (if any :rolleyes: )

Even without that kind of practical challenge, when it comes to "documentary" images, I often find it difficult to pick one photo or one edit that conveys the sense of what I've been looking at.

Morrisseeee · 04-11-2018 5:20pm

Adrian.Sadlier wrote: »

I have 30+ TB

Phew, I don't feel too bad now :eek::pac:

cant decide on edits ?

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