Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit (Step 3)

Here's what we've done so far:

• Offloaded images from the camera onto the computer (preferably backed up on a separate location as well)
• Weeded out the rejects from the lot (as described in step 1)
• Narrowed down the field of 'contestants' by placing only good images in a pick pile (as illustrated in step 2)

Take note that we haven't uploaded any of our pictures yet. At this stage, they're still residing in a folder in your hard drive awaiting the third and final step. 

Step 3. Create a 'diet' plan and stick to it.

If you've faithfully followed steps 1 and 2, then the last one should be fairly easy. Before you make your final selects for upload, think of a theme to the album that you are about to put out there for perpetual posterity  — a thread that ties all of your images together into one cohesive and beautiful tapestry. It can be as simple as showing the chronology of events as they unfolded or it can be as elaborate as allowing colors and emotions to meld together into one meaningful piece. 

It doesn't even have to be mind-blowingly profound each time; what's important is that you actually made a real effort to tell a tale with your pictures, rather than just splatter them all over a browser page. They deserve more than that. If you understand the need to organize your thoughts before speaking in front of people, then this process should make perfect sense. You want to be concise, comprehensive but brief.

Once more, allow me to illustrate my point further with an example using my own images. These are pictures I made during a family outing to a local beach, which should be an event that most of us (in the tropics) would have experienced at least more than once in our life. 

*The pictures are labelled in pairs to help me present the goal of this exercise. Hover your mouse over each image to view the label.

__________

__________

I imagine you might have a set of images like this in your pick pile. Once you have a theme in mind, choose only one from each picture pair to tell your story. The photo that you choose must be the one that best conveys the message that you want to get across. You want each significant event to be represented, but you also don't want to diminish how special it is by identifying each moment as being memorable.

So, which three photos would you choose?

You can see what I came up with after the jump.

Watching the World Go By

Sun Flower. Far from tainted light skylines of the city, I remember marveling at the sheer multitude of stars in the sky on a moonless night. Photography had not found me yet then, but I do have a vivid memory of that breathtaking sight. That experience has inspired me to look up to the heavens ever since. Where we wait for boredom to blink in our daily lives, we often miss the marvels that occur overhead.

Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit (Step 2)

Step 2. Rinse and Do Not Repeat

Okay, so now your pictures are off the card and in your computer. You've weeded out the rejects from the pictures you just shot (as detailed in the previous step). Now, it's time to go over them again and pick out the images that you will proceed to put in a passed-the-audition pile. I would suggest working on copies of your pictures (if you're not using photo management software that preserves the originals) in the event that you might unintentionally delete an image.

The objective of this step is to look at images that essentially depict the same scene, person or object; and choose one to two from that series to go into your pick pile. You don't really need to have four pictures of a waterfall from more or less the same angle, right? 

So, how will an image qualify as a pick? 

Well, allow me to share two examples showing how I go about this process using pictures that I shot myself.

Example 1. The Virtual Slide show

Last year, I shot a short horror flick with a talented group of people from our very own department. There was a downpour on one of the nights that we were shooting, and it was in the middle of all that inclement weather that I chanced upon this tree in the rain. I was in charge of shooting production stills, so I had my camera with me. I took a few moments, while we were walking to one of the indoor locations, to quickly change my settings and shoot a few frames of the scene in front of me. The following pictures are three very similar images of what I saw that night.

So, did I really need all three pictures taking up space on my hard drive?

You can read the answer to this question and the second example after the jump.

Jade - Maternity Portraits

Jade, the lovely woman in the pictures that follow, is a very good friend of my wife, Susan. We conceptualized and planned a maternity portrait session as a gift to her last March, as she was expecting her first child then. She has since given birth to a healthy and beautiful baby boy. However, please allow me to share a few hand-picked pictures that I especially liked from that session here.

The pictures in the collage above can be viewed individually (and larger) after the jump.

Pose: A Question

I posted the collage below on my Google+ stream, and asked those in my circles the following questions with regards to the set of images shown:

Which of the following headshots (of Denden*) below appeals to you the most?

What part/s of the picture makes it appealing to you?

I was glad to have received a fair amount of replies to the questions posed, and I was able to acquire new and helpful insights in the process.

The Verdict

• 75% of those who responded picked out the first picture (from the left). No one picked the second image, so the remaining 25% of the vote went to the third picture.
• Those who chose the first picture cited a number of reasons that could be summed up by the following sentence: Denden looks relaxed and natural.
• Those who chose the third picture pointed out that the angle of the pose flattered the shape of the subject's face.

Allow me to share my answers and thoughts on the matter after the jump.

*I wrote about the portrait session I did with this notable young lady here.

9

Once conceived

Twice revealed

Three months of expectant bliss.

The quarter moon waxes   

As five-pointed stars dance —

Six times sixty twinkling kisses.

A little past the hour of seven

On the eighth day of May,

Nine months of wait has come to this day.

Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit

Social networking has permanently changed the way that most of today's society interact. Where I still marvel at how two people on opposite sides of the planet can meaningfully share their thoughts with each other in as little time as it takes to type up the content of the emails being exchanged, today's youngsters youth is gifted (or cursed) with what is essentially a real-time bombardment update of the current emotion, position, meal or beverage, companion, and unfinished sentence from nearly everyone in their contact list (which roughly averages in the hundreds per individual).

Most of a social networking site's resources and their subscribers' time is spent on hosting and viewing pictures respectively. Nothing quite proves that you're about to watch The Avengers in 3D than actual pictures of you (with your 3D glasses on) inside the theater. And with most people heavily favoring sight and sound over their other senses, one can see why this is so. I appreciate how family and friends can share their treasured moments with each other at the click of a button. What I despise find alarming is the prevalence of picture vomit, which is what happens when a full memory card 'explodes' all of its contents onto your album page, and results in something that resembles the image below.

Fortunately, this ailment can easily be remedied. If you are a chronic sufferer, don't worry, as a cure is just three steps away.