Making photographs is only half the process if you want to publish, exhibit, sell or display them. Choosing the right image for its intended purpose is equally important, yet it’s a skill which often gets overlooked. In this interactive workshop we’ll look at how to edit your photographs then select them for different uses from publication to exhibitions and competitions. It will include a group image critique and a practical editing session.

When I started as a photographer no one showed me or taught me how to edit my images, yet the editing process is fundamental to every aspect of photography from selecting for a portfolio or website, to choosing a selection to send to a picture editor for publication. Even if you aren’t professional or don’t intend to sell you photographs, it’s an essential skill needed when selecting images to print or to enter into competitions.

Choosing a picture for a themed competition is very different from sending one to a magazine or website picture editor for publication. When we edit our photographs we usually either choose our favourite ones, rather than our best ones, or we edit with a particular purpose in mind – for example, which picture should I have printed to hang on the wall?

The most common mistake which photographers make is choosing their favourite images, because favourite doesn’t equal best. Your favourites are often the images which have the most or best memories attached to them, yet a picture editor is looking only at the image without those memories hidden behind them.

In this workshop you’ll be guided through the process of choosing the most appropriate images for each of the different uses, contrasting how one image which is right for one purpose may not be for another. To help you to get to grips with this we’ll be looking at your own images in a group critique. This exercise is highly constructive and really helpful – it is not something to be nervous about.

We’ll then be looking at a selection of images and, together in a practical editing session, choosing which images work best for different uses – website, publication, exhibition and competition. You will leave the workshop with much greater insight into how to edit and select your images.

Module 1
⦁ Organising your images
⦁ Selecting images for a portfolio or your website
⦁ Selecting images for publication – online and in print
⦁ Selecting images for exhibitions and prints
⦁ Selecting images for competitions and other uses

Module 2
⦁ Group image critique

Module 3
⦁ Practical editing exercise
⦁ Re-editing you photographs
⦁ Refining your portfolio or website

What Should Students Bring?

• Your portfolio of up to 8 images (prints or a USB drive)
• 6 images as jpegs on a USB drive – 4 best and 2 you aren’t happy with but don’t know why
• Please do not bring more images as were won’t have time to look at them properly