Sunday, February 28, 2016

HOW TO EDIT A PERFECT PHOTO STORY?

STORYTELLING NEEDS EDITING


What is the story you are telling?

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
I will write quite loosely my thoughts of editing. I hope you find some good tips to make your editing process more focused and easier. I wanted to tell a story about our late lunch - blinis. It happened in our home on a beautiful sunny winter day. I also styled it to look like a slavic table. Not so seriously though. Blinis have Russian roots. 

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Things to consider when you start to build your story. You should already think these things when you are shooting and of course during you are editing photos. Remember also when you are shooting the story to get different kind of pics for sure.

Show scene and build narrative - how you draw the viewer to follow your story? 
Point of view - where are you? 
Purpose - what are you trying to tell?
Lightning -use it for benefit for your point of view - soft light, hard light, dabbled light etc.
Find mood, create atmosphere - develope emotion - that is what the story is about  
Introduce people in story
Follow movement
Show ideas
Find contrast
Find details

Sounds logical?

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
On editing you should know how many pages you have in magazine or how many pics you want to use in your single blog post or in your IG feed? These days we have digital cameras and it is easy to shoot a lot. Editing is more difficult because you have so many pics to go through. But like the cliches "Kill your darlings" and Less is more" editing is all about making decisions. You have to make decisions which photos tell the story, which ones are the strongest ones. If you think about a magazine layout you can notice there are big and small photos in the same story. Which photos are the main pics - pics you want to show and best for your story. Which ones support the main photos well. There are different combinations for sure how to tell your story and I don't want to say there is right or wrong, just want to give you some tools and tips how to get rid of the too many alike pics in your story.

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com


Some tips:

Pics have to have enough difference from each other:
new angle, different depth of field, direction, close up or the whole subject. There are so many different ways to make a pic. Every story need to build from small pieces.

Pic have to have new or different information from the subject. Go close - step back. Go up, go down. Try to find the best angle for your subject. Thinking out of the box helps here.

Which order you show them? In blog you have to start with very good photo because people is so short tempered in internet. It's obvious that a very good pic draws attention where ever you tell your story.

Surprise the reader, begin with not the obvious pic. Doesn't work always.

There are strong main pics and supporting pics. If you can't think what new or different the pic brings to your story - it might not be the one to use. Even though you have made a huge job for cooking, baking, shooting and styling the photos, you should not show too many alike pics in your final story.

I have few choises from one angle from same subject. I have to pic one of them. I don't want to show all of them only because I can't choose which one is the best one. Luckily - more you edit better you come. I hope you aren't thinking that editing is too difficult for you. No it's not. But if the pics are too alike you should show only one of them. Of course it depends on your story. If  you are telling a story like mine today - choises to make is easier than for example if it would be a food and travel story.

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com

Ok, are you still with me? 

If I haven't already said it enough clearly, I say it again. You have to make decisions - can't avoid that. But it is good to take editing as learning by doing. Nothing bad happens if you feel afterwards that you should have chosen differently. You learn everytime. Make a new story.

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com
You can also ask from your friend or collegue their opinion while you are editing. I bet they see things a bit differently but this is not a matter of who is right - you always have to listen your inner voice but it is good choise to let somebody else go through the pics - of course knowing your story. Like I had first 78 pics I went quite easily to 20 pics and then I edited pics still 10 and finally I chose to tell my story with 7 pics. A good thing to remember is that you can also take a break in editing. Continue after few hours or next day. I usually don't like to make a final editing straight after photoshooting. I make the first selection but I like to leave the final editing for the next day. But sometimes you just have to make them during same day. That's why it is good to learn how to do it more efficiently.

How to edit? Blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengretchen.com


I´m sure I forgot something so please ask if you feel you want to hear my opinion.

Finally here are recipes of blinis and muschroom salad. This time we did not have dairy free so we used lactose free soured cream. But you want to be dairy free you can use for example Oatly's oat creme fraiche. 

Other ingredients with blinis are of course chopped red onion, chopped russian salt cucumber and fish roe.

GLUTEN FREE BLINIS about 25 blinis / by my husband and he doesn't follow so much other people's recipes. He cooks food quite freely.

3 dl water
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 dl teff flour (very healthy choise and gluten free)
1/2 dl rice flour
1 dl oat flour

Combine ingredients let it rest at least 3 hours.

Add:

1 tsp salt
1 dl mineral water  Mix it to the dough.
2 eggs. Separate white and yolk. Mix yolks to the dough.  Whip egg whites to firm. Fold gently into dough.

Fry blinis with canola oil until they get a bit color from both sides.  


We also made mushroom salad with blinis.

MUSHROOM SALAD

1 1/2 dl smetana
dried mushrooms/salted mushrooms to taste
1/4 onion chopped
1 tsbt olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar
salt to taste
white pepper to taste (we didn't use pepper)

Mix all together and let it rest for awhile at least the time you fry blinis.

Bon appetit! 

I hope you get inspired to make blinis, they are so very tasty.

Phew, long blog post full of information. I hope these thoughts helps you on the way to perfect photo story. Well, I guess perfect is a bit strong word but it is always good to have a goal that makes you work even harder. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that one of those pics is iPhone pic. Which one?

I've blogged couple of times photography tips so you can find them here: 


Have a beautiful Sunday and creative week!

xoxo
Kreetta

ps. this is the contact sheet of 20 pics I started to edit to final 7.

how to edit? blinis photo by Kreetta Järvenpää www.gretchengetchen.com

2 comments:

  1. While the post is extremely useful, I was like 'blinis! caviar!" all the way through it, and I'm still not able to read it properly. Will try tomorrow after breakfast :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, sounds you are having delicious blini Monday :) Thanks for stopping by!

      xo
      Kreetta

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