Writers Vs. Editors: A Battle for the Ages
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under journalism
I enjoyed this article.
Maybe writers and photographers aren’t so different after all?
Writers are sensitive souls–generally intelligent and hardworking but easily bruised. Treat them right, though, and you will be rewarded.
Tags: editing, journalism
The monster they call picture editing
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under editing
I’ve been spending some time looking at new work the past couple days and find it interesting how different photographers edit and present their work. For example a lot of photographers doing the portrait thing for magazines seem to use generic titles for their portfolios such as Portfolio 1, Portfolio 2, etc.
I recall reading somewhere that when using generic titles you’re less likely to offend the visitors to your site if your photos don’t match watch their perception of the title is?
That’s a different post though. Back to editing.
If you’re like me you’re never truly satisfied with the edit of anything you do.
Change this. Try that.
Only to revert back to my first edit and question what I’m missing.
We all know how hard it can be to edit your work. Damn near impossible. Even worse is when you get an edit from a friend and they tell you to ditch your favorite image. That’s like asking a 7 year old to give all his Halloween candy to his little sister. It’s hard to cope with.
Editing is an intimidating and ruthless process and one I never look forward to. Much like my Grandma’s garden you need to hoe out those weeds and yes sometimes that weed might be disguised as your favorite image. Although if you expect to have a garden of roses rather than an oasis of weeds or in our case a collection of singles with no narrative it needs to happen.
Editing at its worse has the power to make people cry. At its best it can make you feel like a chef in the kitchen. Just the right ingredients and watch a masterpiece take form
As is often the case less is more. What is this image adding? Is every picture advancing the story? How’s the pacing? The visual variety and impact? Are all my images quiet? I struggle with that one a lot. Does it read like a musical score? Or is it on par with my cooking? Flat and lifeless.
Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” and claimed that it was some of his best work.
Let Hemingway be your guide and edit tight.
Tags: editing
Saul Bass on film intros
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under multimedia
Anyone doing multimedia needs to be thinking in this same manner as they approach and edit their stories.
Saul Bass states:
My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.
What resides emotionally in your multimedia or photos is just as important as the narrative and goes along way in engaging your audience.
In other words make me feel.
Tags: editing, inspiration, multimedia, video
Editing multimedia.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under me, multimedia, school
Since returning from Arizona I’ve lost what little tan I had, narrowed a boatload of images down to a “tighter” edit of 60, designed a mock layout to only trash it for a WordPress theme, ingested a lot of bad video and pushed off editing audio and video until tonight.
As I type this my first rough, very rough two minutes of my project are exporting. 10 days of shooting boxed into a Final Cut window. The start to what will hopefully be the essence of a place in a shorter than Spud Webb timeline — only to awake in the morning to find the exported piece like nothing I dreamt and wonder just what my sleepless mind was thinking.
The joys of late night editing.
Forgive me for shooting this silhouette, but I couldn’t help myself when
I came across this couple dancing outside their RV sunset.
Tags: editing, me, multimedia, ou, Quartzsite, school
Editing makes me dizzy.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under editing, me
After a few days of trying to gather up images for College Photographer of the Year(CPOY) I don’t know left from right anymore or good images from bad. Although in my case it’s been easier to spot bad images since I seem pretty good at making those.
The only given it feels like is that the more you look at your work the more you hate it. It doesn’t take long and all your weaknesses seem to start leaking out of every crevice.
As Melissa pointed out on the APAD blog her favorite post on the new The Photo Editor blog is one that deals with the idea that everyone takes bad pictures. (You should have both blogs on your RSS feed if you don’t already.)
As many people say you’re only as good as your weakest image.
Here are a few images from a project I was working on last spring that I’m trying to edit into a tight essay.
I’m calling it American Trucker. It’s a personal exploration and commentary on an occupation(truck driving) that’s fascinated me since I was a kid.
Yep you guessed it. That’s me as a wee tot not knowing that in time I’d explore a topic I spent a decent amount of my childhood around.
Tags: editing, me, personal, portraits, truckers
A photo editor’s blog.
Posted by Tim Gruber | Filed under editing
A blog by an anonymous photo editor.
Who’s the man or woman behind the blog?
I’m a Photography Director based in New York City. While I don’t care if you know who I am or what magazine I work for, I would like to remain anonymous so I can keep my job and blog.
There looks to be some good entries worth exploring already. Like this one on Antonin Kratochvil.
Antonin is one of my favorite photographers of all time. I love giving him an assignment, especially something that’s not conflict related, because you’re guaranteed two things. 1. Amazing photography. 2. A fight with the editor.
Tags: editing, photography
