Finding the colours of a city
How to edit Toronto
Letting your experiences while shooting lead your edit.
Photo editing is a skill, the same way that photo taking is a skill, the same way that photo marketing is a skill. Photographers are expected to have all these skills in their tool kit from the get go and that is rough.
There is a limited number of career paths out their that when you start out you have a 99% chance of being absolutely awful at your job. No one picks up a camera for the first time and instantly knows how it works, or understands the nuances of colours and light. Their is a very steep learning curve for content creators where you learn you’re own style and gradually get better and better.
Today I wanted to talk about something that piqued my interest as I gradually got more comfortable with editing, and that is allowing the photo or the day to dictate the flow of your edit.
I used to be one of those photographers that would constantly try and fix things in post, I’d make photos shot at 2pm try and look like a photo shot at golden hour. I know how lazy that is NOW but at the time I didn’t understand that editing was an extension of the photography process, not the end product.
Gradually I started waking up earlier, hiking farther, investing in my skills and gear and ultimately getting better.
I learnt that the time at which you take a photograph, the feelings, the atmosphere, the event are all significant and can be used in the edit to help inform your style.
In 2021 I was lucky enough to visit Toronto for the first time and go on a walk with a brilliant creator, Jeff Mann. We shot in the middle of the day in August, it was sunny, harsh shadows and while we shot we chatted as he showed me the around the city.
I saw a lot of down town Toronto that day, the steel and concrete of the high rises was amazing and made for some great photos. Later when I sat down to edit I thought back to that feeling I had walking around the city. The colours that stood out to me and the details that caught my eye. Toronto for me was pretty colourless, with pops here or there to really draw your eye.
This is in contrast to Dublin, where I started practicing photography. Whenever I’m shooting Dublin I always think of the street lamps with the warm orange glow. The city holds an orange hue that can make for some really interesting visuals.
In short when you’re editing anything creatively (i.e. not for real life accuracy) you need to reflect on how the place feels and the impact it had on you at the time. Then and only then will you be able to create work that in uniquely yours.
Making Spec ads for paid work
Reebok Nano Ad
Make every second count
‘Hey can you work for exposure?’ – the one sentence sure to raise the hairs on any content creators neck. Exposure won’t pay rent of get me toilet paper now will it! Well this post isn’t about doing loads of free work for a profiting company (while I am vehemently against that its up to each individual to make up their own mind).
This post is about making work that you want to make so you can learn a new skill or build your portfolio.
For example, I wanted to play around with digital backgrounds and long exposure photography. The end result is the main image you see above, a spec advert for the Reebok Nano trainer with 99% of the image you see being shot in camera (obviously the logo and tagline added in post).
Now Reebok never paid me for that post, probably because they never asked me to make anything for them in the first place. But I was interested in learning more about digital backdrops (for the record this was my TV screen set to a YouTube video with crazy backgrounds) so I did it in my own time. When you don’t have a paying client things can be a lot more freeing. No one to submit drafts to or outline your ideas or inspiration. You get to shoot what you want, how you want it and that is always helpful in furthering your craft.
Ultimately what the photo did give me was some knowledge on a set up that I really enjoyed and got me another product photography piece for my portfolio…oh and Reebok did get in touch in the end so thats kinda cool to I guess 😉
