Culls

 

Culling photos is a process of choosing the best ones and omitting the ones that you don't want to show a client.  There are a lot of reasons a photo might not make the cut and get culled out.

 

I cull several times before I upload the final proofs to a client's online gallery.  The first time I go through the photos and I remove any photo where the clients eyes are closed, or I caught them not quite ready.  I then remove any photos that are blurry or duplicated. 

 

In the finished proofs you will see the best photo or two of that pose or background. 

 

After the initial basic editing of the photos, I'll cull again.  Or I'll do an additional edit of the photo for clients to see.  I'll include a black and white version or a matte version of the same photo for the client to have more to choose from. 

Recently, a client called me & wanted to know if the other photos that I took didn't turn out because I only had one proof of the pose.  I went back to the original photos (which I keep for at least a year) and I saw that I had taken 3 photos of the same pose and I had chosen the best one of the 3.  One of the three was blurry and one had a child looking away.  I edited the one where the child looked away because the client was interested in seeing culls. 

And that's the reason for this post!  To explain why I may seem to take many photos of the same pose and you only see one or two photos.  And the reason is simply to ensure that I get one good photo of everyone with their eyes open and looking at the camera.