You too can be your own worst editor.

Pretty much everything. I tried to edit my work, on my own, because obviously I knew best, and in this electronic world I just reorganised the photo’s on the computer until I got something that I felt was right. It was only when I asked my wife what she thought, (because I was so proud of my efforts), that it only took a couple of innocent questions before I realised that I had dropped a large bollock. Editing requires distance and subjectivity, two things I was missing, (at least).

A good edit makes the difference between a coherent portfolio and just a collection of favourite photographs. A good edit, walks the line between not having something that looks like everything else while retaining the individual “signature” of the photographer, without tipping into the depths of total self-congratulation.

This is why Editors have jobs, but of course, not all of us have the budget or the margin to pay for the services of an Editor, (if you have a shed-load of money and don’t employ an Editor – why not!). For us lesser mortals, we need a few tricks. Now I’m not saying that the following list will solve all the problems, (as I always say – we’re all Adults here), but it certainly helped me, (none of the reviews of my book to date have said “shame about the Shite Editing”, which is encouraging).

1. Distance and time.

Digital is great. Instant feedback, instant edits. Delete, delete, delete!! Don’t be so hasty. Back up that full memory card as soon as you can, and then……..go and do something else. You may find that those “dodgy” pictures may have some merit, and if they don’t, don’t delete them – learn from them.

If it’s been a particularly good shoot you’ll still be buzzing, already in your mind you’ll have favourites, and even if those favourites aren’t quite there you’ll treat them like your little babies. Walk away, do something else and come back tomorrow and review them. If they’re still good the next day, then that’s those through the first round. If not, then learn from them.

2. The 5 second flag

Whether its contact sheets, enprints, digital lightbox, a good exercise is just to go through the images at speed and rate them from highest to lowest. Why 5 seconds? Well we’re looking for those images with impact, the ones that stick. It doesn’t mean that the images that don’t immediately stick are rejected, as some images can reward the viewer with further engagement. Don’t underestimate your audience. In terms of your book this is about getting a feel for the pace. Do you want your book to be the equivalent of a full-on Michael Bay movie, not giving the reader a respite, and maintaining heightened excitement, or do you want to vary the pace. Some full-on, some surprises, with an over-arching sense of narrative. Your choice. (Don’t delete anything)

3. Prints and gold-stars

It’s a variation on 2 above, and I know you can do everything I suggest on a computer, but don’t ignore working with physical prints.

Take all the images for the project and get them printed as 6*4. Don’t worry about final edits and colour corrections, this is about seeing them laid out next to each other and assessing how they interact. I clear the dining room floor, others pin them to a board, whatever works. I then use small sticky circles, or stars and stick them on each photo. I use different colours for definites, maybes and duffers. Now this is the tricky bit. You need to find someone willing to give you feedback on what they like, (my wife works wonders for me, she has a standing instruction not to spare my feelings) and ask them to rate the photographs. Don’t tell them what your colour scheme means. You may find there are some surprises. For instance, I found I was including in the definites, some pictures that I had really worked on in Photoshop, all that effort! All that baggage and bias! Some of the “maybes” got the thumbs up because while I thought they hadn’t required as much effort, (by luck and maybe some judgement); elements had come together in camera. More of my baggage and bias had nearly consigned these to the duffer pile.

Where the session has resulted in the duffers being selected by both parties, put these to one side (don’t throw away yet) and concentrate on the definites and maybes.

4. The Scrapbook

Still sticking with the physical prints, start arranging them in the order in which you think they should be viewed. Once done, leave them. If on the floor make sure to lock the cat out, (there is a danger the cat will do a better edit job, which is just bloody embarrassing).

Come back to it later. If it looks good now is the time to arrange the prints in a plain A4 book. The reason for this is you want to see how the photos hang together in a spread. Now I know you can do this on the computer, but it’s so much easier to work with your “assistant”, just rearranging physical prints without having to worry about shouting, “don’t press that button!” When you’re doing this you may find that some prints stand alone, some complement each other on a double page spread, some look out of place.

This is the point at which you need to start pruning. If for example you book will be 100 prints, will this be 100 full page spreads, and will some of the “maybe” pictures be insets?

Repeat until happy. Show to “assistant”. Take on board comments. Sulk. Grow up and repeat.

To summarise:

- Take your time
- Get a second opinion (at least)
- Don’t be afraid to do it again.
- Remember, you are the Editor. Don’t lose sight of what you want to achieve.


This is the process that works for me and is probably why it takes so long for me to finish. Never mind. Going through this iteratively makes it a lot easier when I come to assemble the draft using Adobe InDesign, and even when I’m doing that, I’m still fine tuning, but it’s just that, fine-tuning.

One of the other things that the 4 points help me do is design my template, which is something that I also take a lot of time over. But that’s another story………………………