James Popsys explains how he picks the best photos from his shoots. Video is pre-pandemic. It’s refreshing to hear someone mention going out to photograph and not mention social distancing.
- “In the field” shoot a black image if you see “the one” that works.
- In Lightroom import your photos immediately. Do not sort and choose when you get home.
He uses stars in Lightroom. In the first round he awards up to three stars:
- Single star – photo must be interesting and sharp (in the right places)
- Another star – does the composition work?
- Another star – is it exposed correctly?
For the second round, he only shows photos that have two stars or more. So that should show photos that are interesting and sharp, and either composition works or exposed correctly. In this round he changes composition by cropping and/or fixes exposure. Should have a few more three star photos.
At this point he’ll do more editing, and the best photos get another star. The very best get five stars.
I’m blogging this because I’ve had this video open in my browser tabs for months, meaning to try out this technique but I learn a process like this better if it’s written down. Hope it helps somebody!