Editing

Step One

I started with 81 images of a juvenile tapir shot at Lake District Wildlife Park (very cute).

I tagged the initial faulty shots with a yellow star, which only removed four - these were shots that had failed on every level - the others were all technically fine, i.e. the exposure could be altered or the image could be cropped to produce a pleasing image.  So this step really wasn't much help.  I then deleted the ones I tagged with a yellow star, leaving me with 77 shots.

Step Two

I then worked through the remaining shots to pick out the ones which satisfied me creatively.  As this was a fairly simple subject, I wasn't looking for a complicated composition.  I wanted to create a couple of portraits of the two-week old creature showing it at it's cutest.  For this I worked instinctively, again tagging with a yellow star (which is visible from the grid view), so that my favorites stood out.  I decided I didn't want any pictures with any background clutter, and that a catch light in the eye was desirable but not essential.  This gave me 18 files.

Step Three

My next task was to make a selection of the next best ones.  I wanted to find the pictures with the best facial expression or ones that showed off the markings to the best effect.  I also liked the sequence of the the tapir playing with the branch.  At this point I was also thinking about the end product, so I was tweaking with exposure/contrast/cropping - just to see - but not saving.  I used a system of two and three stars to pick out images, ending up with 5 images with three stars - I then saved these in a separate folder (this is for ease of blog writing, in practice I wouldn't do that as it takes up too much memory):

2134 was chosen for the prominence of markings (although the bottom three also show these clearly); 2146 has a very cute face expression with the under developed snout crinkling up; 2147 has captured the animal in motion - both 2146 and 2147 have catch lights, and then the bottom three show some activity and clear markings - all fairly similar.





Step Four


I took a break and then looked back over the one and two star images to confirm that I was happy with my choice.  But by this time, I already knew my two favourite shots.

Step Five

Final selection  - the two best shots

2146

2146 was a clear winner for me.  I loved the awkward stance showing the wobbly nature of the two-week old animal and this view of his face clearly shows the very cute and yet to elongate nose.

Processed in mono, square cropped, increased contrast and sharpness, and added 1/2 stop exposure compensation.

2168

The other choice was a little harder to make; but 2168 was the better of the three as it showed both eyes, plus the markings and the nose.

Same processing as above.