I took a number of images - just over sixty - last weekend up on the Sussex Downs and as part of a walk with Sue. My theme was Sue and trying to get some decent portraits of her which I am really keen to do.
Using Photoshop Elements, I loaded them up and used the five star rating method that is included in the package with one star = delete, three star = review again and four star = definite keep. I left the five star rating empty as I wanted to use this for my final selection. I then proceeded to rate them but messed it up a little when I started to use the two star rating because I could'nt exactly make my mind up! (Some learning there was perhaps to stick to the script!!!)
I then started on the technical edit deleting all one star images which were either blurred, Sue's eyes closed because of the bright sun , hair in her eyes or the light shining from behind was too bright.
From the remaining set of images, I reviewed my two and three star ratings to see if I wanted to upgrade them to a four star (which now became defined as a 'possible definite'!) or to delete them.
The 'first selects' then became those that were rated four star which I regrouped so that I had what I considered were absolute definites in the five star grouping and the seconds in the four star. I reviewed these again and once again deleted out those that I was not so keen on. Interestingly, I had decided at this point which two images I definitely wanted to keep although I had six images now rated five star.
As required in the exercise, I reviewed these one more time and chose only two which are below.
This was an interesting exercise as I realised that it created a level of discipline that I probably have not adhered to before as well as helping the whole editing process to become far more organised.
I've decided that I will now use this method when I take larger groups of images like these in the future.
Mark
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