Shooting and selection

Learning goal

You will be able to get from the hundreds, even thousands of frames gathered over a project lasting weeks down to a consistent series that carries a question. You will see how the interim edits made at the end of each week during shooting make the final selection easier. You will bring frames shot in different locations and under different light sources together in a shared color language by choosing a reference frame and looking at it, and do tonal matching that brings the tones closer to each other. You will try the series' order with a sequencing draft built with small prints, and arrange the order to serve the project's question. You will take care that different skin tones shot in different lights don't lose their natural tones while being brought into a shared color language. You will see that selection and editing are a continuation of shooting, and that the project's question is tested again here.

The question

Four weeks are ending. Your friend opens the project's folder and finds more than one thousand two hundred frames: the bakery's orange darkness, the florist's buckets in daylight, the tea stall's steamy window, dozens of almost identical moments. Laying the frames side by side, they notice something else: the bakery's frames lean toward orange, the florist's toward blue, the tea stall's toward green; they look like three separate projects.

They know editing rounds; but turning a pile shot in three separate lights and spread over four weeks into a single series looms large in their eyes. How do you get from 1000 frames down to 12? And how do these twelve frames, though they come from three separate locations, speak like a single series?

Context

In the single frame and series lesson we talked about visual consistency, in which a series' frames match each other in light, color and form (Lesson 23.1). In the sequencing and pairing lesson you saw how two frames side by side build a third meaning (Lesson 23.3). In the making a selection lesson, too, you practiced setting a target number, narrowing the archive in rounds and moving the frames left out to a pool (Lesson 26.9).

In the capstone project all these skills are put to work at the same time and on a larger scale. What makes the difference is the number and variety of frames: different days, different locations and different lights. This lesson brings selection, consistency and sequencing together at the scale of the capstone project.

Simple explanation

How does selection start while shooting is still going on?

An interim edit is going through the shoots of the days behind you during a project's shooting period, for example every Friday evening, setting aside the strongest and seeing what is missing. Instead of meeting one thousand two hundred frames for the first time at the end of four weeks, setting aside a few dozen candidates from hundreds of frames every week makes the final selection much more manageable. An interim edit has another benefit: it shows early which location, which moment or which person hasn't been shot enough yet, and changes the next week's shot list.

In the final selection, twelve is set as the target frame count and the candidates are narrowed in a few rounds: first the technical round, then the round that looks at whether they serve the project's question, and finally the round that looks at whether they talk with each other within the series. Asking a single question in each round eases the most tiring part of getting a thousand frames down to twelve. The strong frames left out wait in a pool; they can be reconsidered in a wider presentation such as an exhibition or a book.

How are different lights brought into a single language?

A reference frame is the frame chosen to set a series' color and tone language, by looking at which the other frames are edited. Usually one of the strongest and most evenly lit frames in the series is chosen. In your friend's project this could be the frame in which soft side light filters through the tea stall's steamy window.

A shared color language is bringing a series' frames, shot in different locations and lights, to a look close to each other in color temperature, saturation and contrast. The aim isn't to paint every frame the same color, but for the viewer not to feel they are moving to a separate project when going from one frame to another. The bakery's orange isn't erased completely, because it is part of the bakery's reality; but its excessive warmth is eased, and the florist's blue tone is warmed a little, bringing the two frames closer.

Tonal matching is bringing the blacks, whites and midtones in a series' frames to levels close to each other. If one frame has deep blacks and another faded grays, the series looks scattered when placed side by side. Opening the frames side by side at a small size and comparing their black and white points makes matching the tones easier. The edited series is finally checked on a calibrated screen and, if possible, with a small test print too; tones that look harmonious on screen can behave differently on paper.

In this process skin needs special attention. The dark-skinned master's face shot in the bakery's orange light and the light-skinned florist's face shot in daylight must both keep their own natural tone while being brought into a shared color language. A color change applied to the whole frame can lead one skin tone to redden and another to turn gray. After building the general color language, checking the faces one by one and, if needed, applying a local correction only to the face lets each skin tone stay in its own color.

How is the order built?

A sequencing draft is the working stage in which the chosen frames are tried in different orders by laying them out side by side as small prints or on screen. Laying the frames out on a table and moving them around lets you see how the series begins, how it progresses and how it ends. In your friend's project the order can come from the question itself: a morning that opens with the bakery's first light in the dark, passes through the tea stall's steam and the florist's buckets, and closes with the day's first customer.

The order is changed several times and each draft is left for a while and looked at again. When a frame's place changes, the relationship it builds with the frames beside it changes too; that is why sequencing can also affect the selection again: sometimes a frame becomes unnecessary once it enters the order, sometimes a frame from the pool fills the gap between two frames.

Visual evidence

Your friend starts the final selection with one hundred ten candidates coming from the interim edits they made every Friday. In the technical round they set aside frames with missed focus and unreadable faces and come down to sixty; in the question round they move to the pool frames that don't tell the city's opening and come down to twenty-five; in the series round they take out frames that say the same thing and come down to twelve.

They choose the soft-light frame from the tea stall as the reference. They ease the orange of the bakery frames, warm the blue of the florist frames and match the blacks. Then they check the faces one by one: the general color change has turned the dark-skinned master's face slightly gray; they apply a local correction only to the face and bring back its warmth.

They lay the twelve frames out on the table as small prints. They build an order that opens with the bakery's darkness and closes with the frame in which the apprentice hands bread to the first customer; two days later they look again and swap the places of two frames.

Common mistakes

Summary

In the capstone project, selection starts while shooting is still going on, with interim edits at the end of each week; in the final selection twelve is set as the target number and candidates are narrowed with technical, question and series rounds. Frames shot in different locations and lights are brought together in a shared color language by looking at a reference frame and their tones are matched; meanwhile each skin tone is kept in its natural tone. The order is tried with a sequencing draft built with small prints, arranged to serve the project's question, and matured by leaving it for a while and looking again.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will build a twelve-frame series from your capstone project's frames.

1. Gather the candidates coming from your interim edits; come down to twelve frames with technical, question and series rounds, and move the strong frames left out to a pool.
2. Choose a reference frame from your series and bring the other frames together in a shared color language by looking at it; match their black and white points.
3. After the general editing, check each face in the series one by one; if a skin tone has turned gray or reddened, apply a local correction only to that face.
4. Lay the twelve frames out side by side as small prints or on screen; try at least three different orders, and reassess the one you find strongest after leaving it for two days.

Check yourself

• Does each of the twelve frames add something to the project's question?
• Does your series, though it comes from different locations, speak in a single color and tone language?
• While bringing the colors closer, did you check that the master's and the florist's faces didn't lose their natural color?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What does the interim edit contribute to the final selection?

• A) It makes the final selection unnecessary
• B) It increases the number of frames
• C) It narrows the candidates in advance and shows what is missing early
• D) It matches the colors automatically

2. How is the reference frame used?

• A) The series' color and tone language is built by looking at it
• B) It has to be the series' first frame
• C) It is kept outside the series
• D) It is used only in black-and-white series

3. What is aimed at when frames shot in different lights are brought into a shared color language?

• A) Painting every frame the same color
• B) Removing the feeling of moving to a separate project when going from one frame to another
• C) Erasing all the warm tones
• D) Raising the contrast to the maximum

4. If a general color change turned a master's dark skin gray, what is done?

• A) Taking the frame out of the series
• B) Converting the whole series to black and white
• C) Strengthening the general adjustment even more
• D) Applying a local correction only to that face and bringing back its warmth

Answers

1. C — Weekly interim edits make the final selection manageable and correct the shot list in time.
2. A — The reference frame offers a common measure for the series' look.
3. B — The aim isn't to make the frames identical, but to let the series flow as a single whole.
4. D — A local correction preserves the skin tone's natural tone without breaking the general color language.

Summary card

• Start selecting while shooting: an interim edit every week.
• Come down to twelve with technical, question and series rounds.
• Choose a reference frame; build a shared color language, match the tones.
• After the general adjustment, go back to the faces one by one; if needed, correct only the face.
• Try the order with small prints, leave it, look again.

Bridge to the next lesson

Twelve frames are sequenced; your friend looks at the series and feels proud. The older member, on the other hand, asks them a few questions: where will people see this series, on a web page, on a wall, in a small book? Does the series have a name? What will it tell the viewer beside the frames? Your friend realizes that shooting and editing the photos is only half of presenting them to the world. How do you present your work to the world? The next lesson takes up the project text, the title and presentation formats such as web, print or photobook.