How I Edit my Photos

Old entrance to our farm on Sourwood Lane. I didn't spot this as a keeper until other people told me how much they like it. Now it hangs in our living room!

 Blog note: I wrote most of this post last night on my iPad, then accidentally deleted it. Bummer!!!

Editing film is different from editing digital files, but neither is more difficult than the other. I've been doing both for a long time -- 35 years with film, and 23 years with digital.

Editing film is fairly straightforward, although it requires more physical activity. I shot mostly color transparency (slide) film in 35mm, 120, and 4x5. The photos were edited by placing them on a light box and inspecting them with a 10X loupe (magnifying glass, pronounced loop). The keepers were placed in clear plastic file pages; the others went back in the box until the project was finished, then tossed. Color negative film usually came back from the lab in the form of 4x6 prints, which were easy to edit.

Black and white film was processed in my darkroom, then the negatives were cut in strips and placed in clear file pages where they were inspected with the loupe and the negatives selected for proof prints marked on the file page with a red or yellow china marking pencil.

(Of course, nowadays, if you want many people to see your film pictures you'll have to convert them into digital files. That's a whole 'nother ball game.) 

Moving on to digital: I should mention that I'm primarily a jpeg shooter, but always shoot RAW files simultaneously since it's no extra trouble and can be a valuable backup. The digital files are downloaded into my computer and placed into a folder labeled with the job number, date, or other appropriate title. The files are then opened in a program called ACDSEE. I have an old version, but it does everything I need it to do.

ACDSEE has a "Sort" function, so I first separate the files and place them in file folders named strangely enough, "Jpegs" and "RAW." The RAW files are set aside for now and the jpegs are opened in a free, but very handy program called PIXSORT, where I can sort through the files quickly and designate the selects by pushing the "1" key. The program places the Selects into a separate folder.

The Selects file is opened in Photoshop for any further work that may be needed, such as minor color or exposure corrections, cropping, etc. I have an old, non-subscription version of Photoshop, but again, it does everything I need it to do. If some files require more correction than Photoshop is able to handle, I go back to the RAW folder and process those specific files in Capture One.

So that's how I do it. This will get you in the ball park. I wish I could tell you how to choose your very best photographs, but that one you'll have to figure out for yourself.

The photo: Probably an Olympus film camera. I didn't keep good records back then.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography    film photography     editing photographs     ACDSEE     PIXSORT     Photoshop     Capture One     Olympus film cameras

It's in the Editing, Not the Shooting, that We Know Our Winners

 Rock City barn in Grassy Cove. Tennessee Highway 68, Cumberland County.

Editing has always been the second most crucial part of the photographic process, after the actual photography, because that's where we pick our winners and dump our losers. Sometimes it take a trained eye and artistic sensibility to tell the difference. And sometimes we get it wrong.

In my opinion, editing was easier in the days when we were shooting film because we simply didn't shoot as much. In each situation we would make enough exposures from enough angles to make sure the subject was well covered, but seldom more than that. Film and processing are much more expensive these days, but even when film was cheap, it was expensive. So the rule was: thorough coverage, but no wasted exposures. I think shooting film made me a better, more careful, more precise photographer.

In the digital age, it's easy to be sloppy, holding down the shutter button and making multiple exposures of the same thing when only one is needed.  I'll have to admit I'm sometimes guilty of overshooting. I was a more disciplined photographer in my film days.

For some years now I've been using a free software program called Pixsort to do an initial edit of my files. It helps me identify the losers quickly and dispose of them while keeping the possible winners for a second look. 

But sometimes I slip up. As with the photo at the top of this post. After processing and reviewing the film, I was not happy. In fact, I went back at my own expense (about a 160 mile round trip) a few days later, on a sunny day, and photographed the barn again. But just in case, when I turned in my photos to Rock City's advertising manager, I gave him both the overcast day photos and the sunny day shots.

To my surprise, he immediately picked the overcast day photo above. And when I was later commissioned to photograph and write Rock City Barns: A Passing Era, that was the photo my book designer chose for the cover. I would have missed it completely.

So it can't hurt to get input about your photos from someone whose vision you trust. You might find that some of your photographs are not as great as you think they are, but on the other hand, you might find some real gems that you overlooked.

The photo: Mamiya RB67 medium format camera with 127mm Mamiya-Sekor lens, Fujichrome 100D film.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     digital photography    film photography     Mamiya RB67 camera     Mamiya-Sekor lenses          medium format cameras     editing photographs     Rock City barns     Fujichrome 100D film

Creating a Clean Composition from a Complex Scene

Sunset light at the chapel.

Last Wednesday, May 21, I wrote about how to make photographs that are "clean," that is, that are composed so that they include everything necessary to tell their story, and have no extraneous elements in the frame that detract from their message. If you missed it, you can read it here.

The picture above would seem to violate that rule, yet I consider it my all-time best photograph.

The year was 1989 and I was at the mission hospital at Abak, Ibom Province, Nigeria, on assignment for Church of God World Missions. Chapel service had just ended as the setting tropical sun, its beams parallel to the ground, threw a splash of flame against the chapel wall.

At first, the picture appears chaotic. Where does that glorious light come from? Where is the woman whose shadow is cast on the wall on the left? What is the meaning of the rope hanging from the upper left corner? Who is the man half-hidden in the shadows on the right? The photograph doesn't answer any of those questions, but when you look carefully, you can see that all the elements work together. There is nothing in the picture that does not contribute to the whole; there is nothing that needs to be added to create an atmosphere of beauty and mystery. That is the message of this photograph: beauty and mystery.

I seldom used auto-exposure back then, but the light was fading quickly. There was no time to do anything except raise my Olympus OM2n and click off three quick shots with the lens that was on it – a Tamron 100-300mm f4 zoom at the 300mm setting. I noticed that the exposure on Fujichrome RD100 slide film was 1/15^th second, so I had little hope of getting anything usable. No chimping in those days! 

Did I think through the placement of all the elements in my composition? No, there wasn't time. I simply reacted to the burst of sunset light against the chapel wall. But years of training my eyes and mind to seek good compositions paid off, even when I was not consciously thinking about it.

Back in the US, when the film was processed and edited I was pleased to find that I had one very sharp exposure and another that was usable. This is the best one.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     documentary photography    film photography     Olympus OM2n camera     Tamron 100-300mm f4 lens     Nigeria     Church of God     Africa     Fujichrome 100RD film     photographic composition

A Photo that Almost Made It. Why Not?

Class at The Willow Kindergarten, Chattanooga

Some of my best photos never happened. This is one of them.

The scene was The Willow, a Christian elementary, kindergarten, and daycare facility in Chattanooga. I was making photos for the nearby university which sponsored the school. 

I loved the involvement of the teacher and the children. In fact, I got so caught up in the action that I did not observe one of the cardinal rules I wrote about in my previous post: I failed to be responsible for every square millimeter of my viewing screen. In the excitement of the moment, I did not make sure the teacher's hands were completely in the picture. That's a fatal flaw that makes what would have been a winning picture just another near miss to add to my extensive gallery of near misses. 

Most of the time, when a photographs turns out to be a miss, it's because we tried to include too much in the viewfinder. But sometimes we don't include enough to tell a complete story.

This photo has a lot going for it. It's sharp, the exposure is right on the money, the action is great, and it's. . .still just another photo that didn't quite make it. Make sure your viewfinder shows everything you want to show. No more and definitely no less. 

The photo was made with an Olympus OM film camera on (as best I remember) Kodachrome 64 film. I used one flash unit on a light stand, bounced off the ceiling on my left.

Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2025 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     commercial photography    film photography     Olympus OM film camera     Kodachrome 64 film         photography of education