Editing Assessments & Goals
John Greengo
Lesson Info
79. Editing Assessments & Goals
Summary (Generated from Transcript)
The topic of this lesson is the fundamentals of photography editing, including the setup, organizing and culling images, and the importance of editing and selecting the best photos.
Q&A:
What is the purpose of editing in photography?
Editing allows photographers to select and enhance their best photos, ensuring that they showcase their skills and capture the best moments.
Why is it important to be able to edit oneself as a photographer?
Being able to edit oneself helps to avoid oversharing and presenting only the best and most impactful photos to the audience.
What are some important considerations when setting up a photography editing process?
Considerations include the ability to quickly download and back up photos, efficient editing workflow, and easy access to images.
How does the shooting process affect the editing process?
The way photographers shoot can influence the editing process, as capturing a variety of shots and angles allows for more options during the selection and editing phase.
How many photos did the instructor shoot to get one final winner?
The instructor shot a total of 33 photos to get one final winning shot, demonstrating the importance of shooting multiple images to increase the chances of capturing the best moment.
Lessons
Class Introduction
23:32 2Photographic Characteristics
06:46 3Camera Types
03:03 4Viewing System
22:09 5Lens System
24:38 6Shutter System
12:56 7Shutter Speed Basics
10:16 8Shutter Speed Effects
31:57Camera & Lens Stabilization
11:06 10Quiz: Shutter Speeds
07:55 11Camera Settings Overview
16:12 12Drive Mode & Buffer
04:24 13Camera Settings - Details
10:21 14Sensor Size: Basics
18:26 15Sensor Sizes: Compared
24:52 16The Sensor - Pixels
22:49 17Sensor Size - ISO
26:59 18Focal Length
11:36 19Angle of View
31:29 20Practicing Angle of View
04:59 21Quiz: Focal Length
08:15 22Fisheye Lens
12:32 23Tilt & Shift Lens
20:37 24Subject Zone
13:16 25Lens Speed
09:03 26Aperture
08:25 27Depth of Field (DOF)
21:46 28Quiz: Apertures
08:22 29Lens Quality
07:06 30Light Meter Basics
09:04 31Histogram
11:48 32Quiz: Histogram
09:07 33Dynamic Range
07:25 34Exposure Modes
35:15 35Sunny 16 Rule
04:31 36Exposure Bracketing
08:08 37Exposure Values
20:01 38Quiz: Exposure
20:44 39Focusing Basics
13:08 40Auto Focus (AF)
24:39 41Focus Points
17:18 42Focus Tracking
19:26 43Focusing Q&A
06:40 44Manual Focus
07:14 45Digital Focus Assistance
07:35 46Shutter Speeds & Depth of Field (DOF)
05:18 47Quiz: Depth of Field
15:54 48DOF Preview & Focusing Screens
04:55 49Lens Sharpness
11:08 50Camera Movement
11:29 51Advanced Techniques
15:15 52Quiz: Hyperfocal Distance
07:14 53Auto Focus Calibration
05:15 54Focus Stacking
07:58 55Quiz: Focus Problems
18:54 56Camera Accessories
32:41 57Lens Accessories
29:24 58Lens Adaptors & Cleaning
13:14 59Macro
13:02 60Flash & Lighting
04:47 61Tripods
14:13 62Cases
06:07 63Being a Photographer
11:29 64Natural Light: Direct Sunlight
28:37 65Natural Light: Indirect Sunlight
15:57 66Natural Light: Mixed
04:20 67Twilight: Sunrise & Sunset Light
22:21 68Cloud & Color Pop: Sunrise & Sunset Light
06:40 69Silhouette & Starburst: Sunrise & Sunset Light
07:28 70Golden Hour: Sunrise & Sunset Light
07:52 71Quiz: Lighting
05:42 72Light Management
10:46 73Flash Fundamentals
12:06 74Speedlights
04:12 75Built-In & Add-On Flash
10:47 76Off-Camera Flash
25:48 77Off-Camera Flash For Portraits
15:36 78Advanced Flash Techniques
08:22 79Editing Assessments & Goals
08:57 80Editing Set-Up
06:59 81Importing Images
03:59 82Organizing Your Images
32:41 83Culling Images
13:57 84Categories of Development
30:59 85Adjusting Exposure
08:03 86Remove Distractions
04:02 87Cropping Your Images
09:53 88Composition Basics
26:36 89Point of View
28:56 90Angle of View
14:35 91Subject Placement
23:22 92Framing Your Shot
07:27 93Foreground & Background & Scale
03:51 94Rule of Odds
05:00 95Bad Composition
07:31 96Multi-Shot Techniques
19:08 97Pixel Shift, Time Lapse, Selective Cloning & Noise Reduction
12:24 98Human Vision vs The Camera
23:32 99Visual Perception
10:43 100Quiz: Visual Balance
14:05 101Visual Drama
16:45 102Elements of Design
09:24 103Texture & Negative Space
03:57 104Black & White & Color
10:33 105The Photographic Process
09:08 106Working the Shot
25:29 107What Makes a Great Photograph?
07:01Lesson Info
Editing Assessments & Goals
Okay folks, so we have worked our way through most of the class. And now we are to the art of editing. And so, we're gonna talk about what you do after you take the shot. All right. 'Cause there's a lot of things to think about. And what you do after the shot might affect the way you go out and shoot the next shot. So let's talk about all those other things that photographers need to worry about. And so what we're gonna be doing here in the art of editing is talk a little bit about the set up and the mechanics of what you need. A little bit about organizing and culling and debating your images as to what's best. And then a little bit on developing. And, you know, if I was just to pause here for a moment, as far as the skill levels that photographers need to get good at, one of the things that it seems like is lacking in most photographers is the ability to edit themselves. I have found that they tend to, people tend to overshare too many items, and it's like, you were good at ten. But ...
now that I've seen your top 100 shots my opinion has gone a little bit downhill. And I know it's really hard to only show a few images at time. But sometimes it's better to show few that are really good than the other ones. The other skill that's really hard is just simply deciding is this a good photo or is this a good photo? And is there something I can do to this photo that makes it better than that one? And that's a skillset, it's a little bit harder to learn, I think. And so that's what I wanna try to tackle in this class. Let's talk about the setup. All right. Personal assessment. Just doing, ask these questions of yourself, how much are you shooting? And the person who shoots 1,000 photos at a sporting event is going to be very different than the portrait photographer who shoots 40 or 50 in a session. What are you doing with your images? Are they being sold? Are they going into a hard drive that nobody ever looks at again? Be honest about what you plan to do with 'em now and into the future. And, how do you access your images? How do you want to get to them? And so, I've done this myself. And you know, one of the things that I've set up that I'm really happy about is that when I'm sitting at my computer and my hard drives are spinning and I've got my program up, and I decide, you know, what, I need a photo. I can find that photo in less than 10 seconds in almost every single case. And that feels really good. It's just, you've got access to everything that you have. And that's because I've tried to keep things as organized as I can. Now, if I was to ever break both legs and be confined to my office for a year, part of me would love it. I would go in and I would organize this even better so I could photos in five seconds. And so, there's a limited amount of time that we can spend on that. But you need to spend some so it makes life easier. And so, this is my personal objectives. But they seem pretty reasonable. I like to download quickly without any hassles. I wanna back up my stuff and make sure it's not lost in any sort of way. I don't like to spend a lot of time editing. I wanna be able to get through my edits and have things taken care of in a fairly reasonable fashion. And then I wanna be able to search for my images and find them whenever I want them. In preparing this class, I sat at my computer for a lot of hours. And quite frequently I was like, I need a photo. And I'd think in my brain of like, I remember shooting that and this is what it was. Let me go find it. And I wanna find it in 10 seconds. I don't wanna look all over the place and be lost looking for things. And I wanna be able to find things very, very quickly and easily. Now, the ultimate photographic goal is to get the best image when you're shooting there. And have it developed and have it ready there for you. And you're trying to capture the best moment. And so, I'm talking about this because the way you shoot affects the way you edit and back and forth. Because you could be saying, well, I don't wanna go through too many images so I'm not gonna shoot too many images. Well that's not exactly the right thought. I know, some people hear the saying that great photographers shoot lots of photos. And that's the reason they have great photos is they shoot lots of photos. So I'm just gonna go out and shoot lots of photos. Well that doesn't help you out. You gotta have the right skills in there as well. And so let's analyze a moment. A really good moment. Something that like, oh yeah, that was a good moment. How do things happen? Well, often times you're going along and things aren't that interesting. So we got our timeline on the bottom and the quality of photos over on the left. And then you kind of see, oh yeah, that's kind of interesting. Let's go over here. Let's try this angle. And, you gotta keep shooting. 'Cause that's maybe not as good as it gets. The next photo, to be honest with you, could be terrible. That could be it. It's just like a glimmer of something. But then it just faded and it's nothing. But you don't know. The next photo could be the best photo you ever took. All right. And if you're doing things right, you're learning about you're subject. You're figuring out, oh, this technique worked. This one didn't. Oh I gotta do this to make it look good. Now I have this problem. Now I'm solving that problem. And then it's likely gonna get worse. But you keep shooting because it may get better again. Remember we talked about the light. Had kind of one dip. And then, oh, time to go home. Oh no, it's getting good again. All right. You gotta stick around for a little bit. But you know, most things, they kind of have a peak moment. And then they come back down. And this is what happens in a lot of events. And so let me share with you one of my favorite photos of the last year. And this is from my safari in the Nogorongoro Crater. And I call this zebra framing. And, first off I'll show you the final shot. Which is this shot here. And it's just kind of a fun, unusual, different shot. And, kind of the back story on this is I'd been out shooting on safari for about three or four days and I was looking at my images and I'm saying, wow, I'm using that telephoto lens for everything. It's like, if I ever get a chance to use a normal or wide angle lens and we can get really close to an animal I just want a different view. Rather than that standard telephoto shot. And so we're in Ngorongoro Crater. And the zebras are there. Which are nice graphic elements. It's just blue sky day. Not that interesting. And I'm just shooting wide angle. Just to see what I can get. And I notice that there's some zebras that are standing right next to the path that we're driving down. And I tell my driver, just drive really slowly and come to a stop near the zebras that are standing right next to the road. And maybe, cross my fingers, they won't move. Maybe they will. And it won't turn out. But maybe if they don't move it'll be kind of interesting. So he stops right beside the zebra. And rather than shooting out the roof of the vehicle, I get down, and I open the door. And I'm just sitting in the seat so I'm as low as possible. 'Cause you can't get out of these vehicles. It's not right to do that. And I tried shooting wide angle. And okay, well, that isn't exactly what I thought would be a great shot. Let me try just using the back of the animal as a bit of framing for the other animals. And wasn't quite right. And then I wanted to experiment with, 'cause you know the animals are all, everything is in movement so you gotta keep shooting. And maybe I'll try these animals off to the side. No that doesn't look quite right. But okay, these are kind of getting in position. And that's kind of nice 'cause it's a clear shot of the two of them. Maybe I'll try getting a little bit more sky in there. And, no, that doesn't really help. Let me get in a little bit tighter. And so I'm just playing around with different things. Let me go in real tight. I'm getting a nice mix of zebras in the background. I don't like the one zebra off the top of the ear on the left. I wanna little bit more separation. And then I come back and this is my favorite shot here. And it took a while to kind of figure out the goods and the bads. And you learn from your mistakes. And if you do so quickly, you can end up with the things you want. And then I tried doing some shallow depth of field. And tried doing some other things. And they didn't turn out as well. And, you know, the situation is falling apart. And it's just not quite the same thing. And it very much falled into that same thing. You know, there was a glimmer of something that might turn out interesting. I worked the problem over. I ended up with a shot that I was happy with. And then it kind of fell apart and it just wasn't the same again. You know, there are just good moments in time. And, you need to be free to shoot these out in the field. It's kind of hard just to go, well, I'm gonna wait until it's really good and I'll take my one shot. I'm not that good. I don't know very many people who are. Could just take one shot during the day and that be the best shot. This is part of working the process. So I shot a total of 33 images in this situation. And there's really a bunch that I threw away. That are just complete garbage. I didn't even show 'em to you here. And then there's really just one winner of the group. And so I'm gonna shoot 33 photos to get one. And I'll keep the others around in case I need 'em for some other slightly different reason.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Love love all John Greengo classes! Wish to have had him decades ago with this info, but no internet then!! John is the greatest photography teacher I have seen out there, and I watch a lot of Creative Live classes and folks on YouTube too. John is so detailed and there are a ton of ah ha moments for me and I know lots of others. I think I own 4 John Greengo classes so far and want to add this one and Travel Photography!! I just drop everything to watch John on Creative Live. I wish sometime soon he would teach a Lightroom class and his knowledge on photography post editing.!!! That would probably take a LOT OF TIME but I know John would explain it soooooo good, like he does all his Photography classes!! Thank you Creative Live for having such a wonderful instructor with John Greengo!! Make more classes John, for just love them and soak it up! There is soooo much to learn and sometimes just so overwhelming. Is there anyway you might do a Motivation class!!?? Like do this button for this day, and try this technique for a week, or post this subject for this week, etc. Motivation and inspiration, and playing around with what you teach, needed so much and would be so fun.!! Just saying??? Awaiting gadgets class now, while waiting for lunch break to be over. All the filters and gadgets, oh my. Thank you thank you for all you teach John, You are truly a wonderful wonderful instructor and I would highly recommend folks listening and buying your classes.
Eve
I don't think that adjectives like beautiful, fantastic or excellent can describe the course and classes with John Greengo well enough. I've just bought my first camera and I am a total amateur but I fell in love with photography while watching the classes with John. It is fun, clear, understandable, entertaining, informative and and and. He is not only a fabulous photographer but a great teacher as well. Easy to follow, clear explanations and fantastic visuals. The only disadvantage I can list here that he is sooooo good that keeps me from going out to shoot as I am just glued to the screen. :-) Don't miss it and well worth the money invested! Thank you John!
JUAN SOL
Dear John, thanks for this outstanding classes. You are not only a great photographer and instructor, but your classes are pleasant, they are not boring, with a good sense of humor, they go straight to the point and have a good time listening to you. Please, keep teaching what you like most, and I will continue to look for your classes. And thanks for using a plain English, that it's important for people who has another language as native language. Thanks again, Juan