This is my learning log for the OCA Ditigal Photographic Practice course

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Project: Editing


Exercise 4: Editing
Objective: Start with a set of recently shot images (at least 50) and edit down to two acceptable images which would be suitable for possible submission to a publisher.
This shoot is also used as the basis for Exercise 1 Your own workflow 1.
Background for Assignment
I decided to allow myself 2 hours to photograph Uppark House and Gardens to produce two images, for an illustrated article or tourist brochure. I tried not to reproduce the National Trust images although I found this rather difficult as viewpoints were limited. This did influence my editing choices. I did not have time to photograph inside the house. Although I did take100 shots, I restricted my choice to those images which contained the buildings and gardens or just the buildings. This first selection produced 66 images using the “star” grading system.

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From here I eliminated the standard view of the house shown on the Trust’s website, i.e. south face centre frame showing the typical Georgian symmetry and any that were just close up details of the buildings. This left 53 images from which to proceed.
Technical Edit: Next I eliminated any views of the house that were not in  full sunshine, blurred, wrongly exposed etc., leaving 34 “selects” from which to choose technically fine images.

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First Selects: From these I selected 7 images for my first select, marked with a red 1. After a couple of hours I went back to look at these and confirmed to myself that they were my final choices.

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A Final Choice: I have chosen these two images as my final choices (marked with a green 4) for the following reasons:
I chose the west front of  the building (image 0969) as it is not one that I have seen used before. It also put the house in its context with the South Downs included to the right of the frame. The three faces to the house are all very similar which makes it unmistakeable. Without a perspective control lens it is very difficult to photograph from the front of the house as the land falls away which has the effect of burying the bottom of the house in the bank. My images from the southwest and southeast corners are OK but using a wide angle lens tilts the verticals a bit too much. The east front is used already in the Trust’s website.
The house at Uppark consists of three main buildings and I have included the clock on what is now the restaurant and shop, appearing above the gardens. The clock is visible  from many parts of  the site, is a useful reference point for visitors and is an icon of Georgian architecture.

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Conclusions: I have found this a very useful exercise. I would not normally go to so much trouble  when selecting images but I was pleased to find how easy it was once I had decided on a way of marking and filtering my selections. Hopefully the brief for a real shoot would have been a lot more specific and I would have started with less images. Had it been a speculative shoot for stock, it may have been more difficult but I would have imposed my own limits on what and what not to shoot.

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