All language subtitles for 9. The Edit

I listen to my inner voice constantly throughout a day.

And not just when I'm working,

it affects pretty much every decision I make in my life

in one way or another,

but on photography, it doesn't stop after the shoot.

I think that editing is 50% of the job again.

And there's an interesting thing in filmmaking

where they say that you make your film three times.

First when you write the script.

Secondly, when you film the script

and thirdly, when you edit it.

And the reason for that is that

there's a lot of environmental factors that come into play

when you're doing a shoot.

There could be tension on set.

Someone could have been late.

A client could have not liked something,

the make up needed to be changed halfway through

and you had to re-shoot some things.

There was a clothing malfunction.

One of the bulbs, one of the lights,

all these things happen to you

when you're just trying to keep on the path

of getting the shoot done.

And what you're left with at the end,

just like in filmmaking is the pictures.

The shoot is over, all you've got is the pictures.

And now what you've got to do is edit those pictures.

And I say, edit with your heart,

edit entirely with your heart.

Obviously you need to have a mind on,

if I'm photographing a jacket,

you need to make sure the jacket looks good.

But whatever the sort of technical requirements

of the pictures,

the actual moment I choose is a decision of the heart.

Do I believe it?

Is it authentic?

If I look at that, how does it make me feel?

And it's funny,

sometimes it's the accident that I like and I believe,

and I believe it, cause it's a real accident.

Sometimes it's the picture that's a bit dodge,

and it's a bit out of focus, or it's a bit wobbly.

But that may be the picture that says to you,

that's the picture, that's the one I believe,

and that's the one other people are gonna believe.

And I think certainly for my style of work,

people believing my pictures

and the pictures having authenticity

is by far the most important element

of my work as a photographer.

I suppose this image to me

is the illustration of the point of a soft light,

creating a really harsh shadow

by being directly next to the subject

and using the subtle monotone of the outfit

and sort of balancing that within the picture.

And I've had a lot

out of that sort of first person interaction with the lens.

Again, that feels like that picture

could have been taken a very, very long time ago

because I'm never that careful about

keeping my backgrounds too clean unless

it's particularly needed for something.

What you do is even though

we've lit this as a studio environment,

it doesn't feel like a studio photo.

It feels like a repertoire photo

that happens to have been taken in a studio,

but this picture feels like it could have been taken,

in the sort of late sixties and sort of has that, I dunno.

There's a sort of dinginess to the background

that I suppose gives the picture a feeling of authenticity

that it maybe wouldn't have

if it was all sort of perfectly clean and polished.

I really like that.

I really liked that.

I really like that.

That sort of sums it up basically.

You go with what your heart tells you.

And what's funny is often you'll go back to it later

and you'll switch, and it is so temperamental.

And is the thing that is,

I suppose quite difficult to necessarily put a finger on

or to describe,

but it's just how a picture makes you feel

when you're looking at it.

And it is interesting you go back through it,

it's years later and you choose really different pictures

because your aesthetic has changed.

And the thing that you're looking for

in the pictures has changed.

So if I look through them,

it's a quite cool black and white picture,

but it doesn't have any, I dunno,

it doesn't make me feel something

whereas this makes me feel something

because it feels really rock and roll.

It feels sort of in the moment

and the imperfections of the background

make me believe the picture.

And I suppose, illustrates what I wanted to show you

was this idea of, what a really contrasty sidelight does

even if that side light is soft,

if you have darkness over on the left of this image,

you create a complete shadow.

This to me is the picture that has a connection

with the person behind the camera,

which is what I'm looking for in a lot of my photographs.

So I suppose would stand the test of time with me,

for me, this, and this, are more alive

and are more the kind of photos

that I would personally choose.

But the other big point here is this is one light.

I didn't like the background separately.

Technically, maybe I should have done,

but I think I've probably just become enough

of a cantankerous old bugger that I no longer care about

what I'm, so I suppose, I'm meant to do,

I like to do what feels right to me.

Well, I mean, all the soft box is on a light

effectively recreates a window light.

So if you imagine,

if you're in a gray room and there was a window

and especially either it's a cloudy day

or a north facing window

where there isn't a direct harsh sunlight coming through it,

you can get this light.

If I walk into a room,

if you walked into a room at a sort of dingy gray wall,

and there's one window you could expect

to take exactly this photo,

there's no difference in those two things.

So that's the effect that you want these soft boxes are,

they're lovely big north facing windows

that you can just bring in and place wherever you need them.

So it's lovely these backlight.

It's got a full highlight around her.

So that's overfilled.

That was the poly board, right?

Yeah.

It's an interesting thing here

that we thought these were sort of underexposed.

That she was in too much shadow.

And actually when you look at the pictures now,

they're much nicer than when we added the fill.

So I'm pleased we shot these,

can I say every day is a school day.

Well, today is no different.

Now that we've got the extra fill in, they feel too much.

It depends what it is,

if it's a movie poster,

I will do my edit of what I think are the best pictures,

but I'll give them everything.

Editorial, I'll literally often just give them pictures

I want them to publish.

They'll be like, it's 10 pictures,

I'll give them five pictures or six pictures.

So it totally depends what the job is.