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Thread: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

  1. #1

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    What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Time marches on and as it marches I find myself with less and less darkroom time. I used to not even think about this question. I could hop right in to the darkroom after photo taking session and pound through a set of negatives purely on gut instinct. I just "new" which ones were the keepers or after a test print or two new which ones not to print lol.

    What do you all do? Love to here some experience share on your process.

    Why is a photo worth printing? The excitement of taking it has faded, how do you decide what makes the cut?

    This question popped up as I was reviewing some work from a California trip. I attached the contacts below. What would you print? Why? My wife says that only I can decide. Is that true? Does the photographer have to believe in the image first?
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    Will Wilson
    www.willwilson.com

  2. #2
    multiplex
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    contact sheet 4 bottom right, and keep the scratch in there and solarize it, that's one sweet image!

    but yea your wife is right .. otherwise what's the point, im sure you don't care about what I said ... ( and I wasn't joking about the treatment of the frame )

  3. #3
    Nicholas O. Lindan
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Print whatever grabs you. If nothing grabs you then don't print - instead put everything away for a cold rainy day, take the contacts out and see if you are now attracted to an image.
    Darkroom Automation / Cleveland Engineering Design, LLC
    f-Stop Timers & Enlarging meters http://www.darkroomautomation.com/da-main.htm

  4. #4
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Quote Originally Posted by willwilson View Post
    ...

    This question popped up as I was reviewing some work from a California trip. I attached the contacts below. What would you print? Why? My wife says that only I can decide. Is that true? Does the photographer have to believe in the image first?
    The photographer has to get started.

    Ask your wife to pick one out to print and print it. Or ask her to pick one, then print a different one. Get started! My biggest waste of time is deciding which negs to print...but I set up the darkroom and get things ready first...then I have to pick.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  5. #5
    Pieter's Avatar
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Unfortunately, photographers seem to be the worst editors when it comes to their own work. I have seen it time and time again in portfolios. But unless you are photographing on assignment, it is up to you to pick what to print. Make work prints first, then narrow down the choice of what to finesse. Sure, you can ask for others' opinions, but in the end print what appeals to you. I have very often gone back to my proofs and decided a certain image resonates now more than it did at first inspection. And I have quite a few shoots that never end up seeing the light of day.

  6. #6
    Tim Sandstrom
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Play, play, play, without hinderance of editorial oversight... throw off the restraints, print the ones you want... and if you don't want to print any of those, go shoot some more, reconnect with why you shoot in the first place... don't be quick to try to "find the answer", let it come as it might [or not] as a response to your play. Like a child, let it be fun again...

  7. #7
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Quote Originally Posted by Pieter View Post
    Unfortunately, photographers seem to be the worst editors when it comes to their own work.
    ...And I have quite a few shoots that never end up seeing the light of day.
    Helping students to sequence their final project (usually 12 or so finished prints) was always fun. Being unconnected to the subjects of the images, I could work with them -- working with the prints' subject, composition, tonality, etc. to create a readable flowing narrative. Then I mix it up and have them rework it to make it theirs again. It is a fun exercise to go through and it can get students thinking more along the lines of what it takes to make a good portfolio....that it is not just a stack of prints, but images that can talk to each other.

    Since I do a majority of my editing with the camera, there are times of no film exposed...but still a successful day if I have paid attention to the light. And no film I have to develop when I get home! It lowers the number of images I make and makes it a bit easier for me to decide which I want to print...that is, most of them. But I do experiment and try things occasionally that just do not work.

    Of course if someone wants to buy a print...that makes the choice of what to print pretty easy!
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  8. #8
    Maris Rusis's Avatar
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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    I made a pact with myself decades ago that I would print every negative, blanks and technical disasters aside, to the best of my ability on fibre base paper. So far I've kept it up. The "pact" comes to mind every time I face potential subject matter with an internal monologue along the lines "Do I really love this potential photograph enough to commit to the darkroom hours required and the dollars spent on expensive materials?" Mostly the answer is NO thus saving a lot on time, film, and paper. What does get produced is better, or so I hope.
    Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".

  9. #9

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    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Maris, thank you for sharing your process. Agreed, you need to commit, one way or another.

    Vaughn, I have never edited others work. I'm sure that was an interesting experience.

    Tim, yes! Fun is part of it. I started LF because it was hard and I thought I wanted to make giant prints. LF was fun because it was hard and giant print making is just plain hard which also makes it fun, to me at least.

    jnantz, appreciate the kudos. No scratches, I contact print in sleeves for ease. I know...lazy.

    Anyone else care to share their process for choosing what to print or not print?
    Will Wilson
    www.willwilson.com

  10. #10

    Re: What to Print - How do you edit your photos?

    Consider something new. How about the "Fine Art of Contact Prints" from your negatives. You may see your negatives in a different light.

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