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How much Shoot Should You Show if you Should Share Shoots :)
I can’t tell you how long I sat there trying for my best “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck” moment at the title. That said, I think this is something that is often overlooked when you’re out there shooting, and totally something that is worth you spending a few moments thinking about.
I remember hearing once that the best Photographers out there are the best editors (it may have been a McNally-ism, or a Scott Kelby-ism but I need to check that) and I think theres a lot of validity to that statement. When I go out to try something for a shoot, there are some times when I come back with a TON of images to review. Because I came back with so many images, there’s this immediate need that I have to rank/sort/pick and create a quick gallery of all of the images I think are “Keepers”
Here’s the rub: Your “Keepers” aren’t necessarily your “show-ers”
Making Images With Sara
The images that you see above are from a shoot I did with Sara, my friend Jeff Leimbach’s daughter while out in Kauai for a DLWS workshop. Sara, amazing at the camera, was more than willing to pose for me while I tried dumb idea after dumb idea. Cool part about this was that she was really good with the camera (and wanting to get into modeling). This means that I got a bunch of cool keeper shots for Sara.
If I put together a gallery of many of them and show them, I run a risk of having someone see a GREAT image, then see a so so image. Then see a good image… then see a decent image.. then see a bad one.. or see a decent one. The takeaway for that person? “Those were some pretty decent images”
Now.. if I limited the shots to three or four of em- and those shots knocked you on your butt.. you’d leave with a completely different opinion!
That’s what the focus here is. Edit very very tightly. Leave a person with a great feeling by making sure you’re only showing a smaller amount, and you’d be amazed as to the impression that leaves on your public.
6 Comments
I’m shooting wedding photography and do a quick, knee jerk- first edit, then a second, then a final, fine tune third pass. Widdiling it away to a clean collection of the best of, from the shoot.
Many years ago, when in Cuba, my photography maestro told me this:
“… a good photographer only shows the best photos, that the main reason he’s good…”
I think this is good, thanks for sharing RC
~ Cesar
choosing what to show is just as important as choosing what/when to shoot and how to process your images, and I am definitely in the less-is-more camp 
I have to add, though, that *who* you are showing the images to is a huge factor in the decision. You need to tailor your choices to your audience.
Not sure you will see the tweet and no other good way to contact you but I REALLY want to thank you for the tip about “Inspect Element” that you gave in one of your classes I sat in at PSW Orlando. It works in Safari, too, and just saved me untold hours tweaking an ElegantTheme while trying to build my web site. Thank you, thank you for that nugget.
Please feel free to delete after reading, just like an out-of-focus capture!
Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, I totally agree with your suggestion, to show only the true “best”, but I know when I’ve photographed some families, I really struggle to determine what to show. For example, my wedding photographer did just what you suggest, so we never saw any photos of my wife’s family, and assumed none had been taken (they had, he just didn’t show them to us), which made my wife quite upset. When I’m photographing families, I never know quite what is truely going to be meaningful to them, becuase an “okay” photo might turn out to be something that they really love, or at the least be something they wanted to walk away with.
Just my POV.
Cheers.
I think that’s a good thought … I sometime get tons of pics I like but when going through the shots I try to narrow it down to the ones that sticks out from the others. Thanks for reminding me about it