Editing and sequencing the body of work

Editing decides which images make up the body of work; sequencing decides the order in which they are seen. Together they turn a large set of competent images into a project with a point of view. PHOT-401 lessons 8 and 9 covered self-critique, editing a series and sequencing as an artistic act, and PHOT-430 lesson 2 covered editing and sequencing for particular formats. This lesson applies those methods to the specific job the capstone sets: a final edit that has to work as an exhibition, as a book dummy and as a portfolio section, made in the few weeks between the end of production and the output orders.

The edit funnel

Editing narrows the set in rounds. Each round applies different criteria, and each should be made with fresh eyes, ideally after a break. A typical capstone funnel moves from every frame shot, to selects (technically and expressively strong frames), to candidates (selects that serve the project), to a shortlist (candidates that work with each other), to the final edit for each output. The numbers vary with the kind of work; documentary and street work have far more frames per final image than studio or large-format work.

Making selects and candidates

Make selects quickly with simple tools: a star or flag system in your cataloguing software, applied in one pass per shoot. Do not compare frames from different shoots at this stage; judge each frame against the frames around it. Then make candidates by asking whether each select serves the project. Some excellent frames will not: a beautiful street scene on the way home is not part of a project about workplaces. Put them in a separate collection rather than deleting them; they may belong to another project.

Consent and clearance are part of the candidate criteria. Any image that depends on a release not yet signed, a site review not yet passed, or a person who has withdrawn consent should not move forward, however strong it is. Marking these images clearly in the catalogue prevents them from slipping into the edit later.

From candidates to a shortlist

The shortlist is where the body of work takes shape. Lay out the candidates together, at the same small size, and look at them as a group. Physical work prints on a wall or table are still the most effective tool because they let you move images, see them all at once and step back; a screen grid is a usable substitute. Look for near-duplicates and keep the stronger one; look for images that pull in a different direction from the rest and ask whether they open the project up or fragment it; and look for what is missing.

Expect to lose images you love. Editors call them darlings: images that matter to you because of the effort, the story behind them or the person in them, but that do not do enough for the viewer. A useful test is to ask whether a stranger who knew nothing of the shoot would miss the image if it were removed. If not, it goes.

Pairs, groups and the structure of the set

Many bodies of work have an internal structure beyond a simple list. Amara's had two image types, portraits and empty interiors, and her reviewers had suggested leading with interiors. She tested pairing each portrait with an interior from the same site, so that the viewer saw a person and then the space they worked in without them. Pairs can also work by contrast (a crowded image beside an empty one), by echo (a shape or colour repeated) or by narrative (before and after). Groups of three or more can build a small chapter within a larger sequence.

Sequencing principles

A sequence has an opening, a development and an ending. The opening image establishes the world, the tone and the approach; it is often not the strongest single image but the one that best invites the viewer in. The ending should feel like a resolution or a deliberate open question rather than simply the last image. Between them, a sequence develops through rhythm (alternating scale, density, light and dark, people and spaces), progression (time, place or emotional intensity) and juxtaposition (what each image adds to its neighbour). PHOT-401 lesson 9 discusses these in depth with examples from photobook history.

Amara's draft sequence followed the night: arrival at dusk at the transit yard, the bakery's ovens around midnight, the radio station in the small hours, cleaners in the office towers before dawn, the taxi stand as the first buses run, and a final interior of the bakery's front window with bread on the shelves and the street lightening outside. The time structure gave the viewer something to hold onto, and the final image closed the night without people, which suited the project's interest in labour that disappears from view.

seq = [  # (image, type, scale, tone) for a draft wall sequence
    ('yard dusk', 'interior', 'wide', 'dark'), ('mechanic', 'portrait', 'medium', 'dark'),
    ('ovens', 'interior', 'medium', 'light'), ('owner', 'portrait', 'medium', 'light'),
    ('apprentice', 'portrait', 'medium', 'light'), ('radio desk', 'interior', 'close', 'dark'),
    ('host', 'portrait', 'medium', 'dark'), ('stairwell', 'interior', 'wide', 'light'),
    ('cleaner', 'portrait', 'medium', 'light'), ('taxi rank', 'interior', 'wide', 'dark'),
    ('driver', 'portrait', 'close', 'dark'), ('front window', 'interior', 'medium', 'light')]
for k, name in [(1, 'type'), (2, 'scale'), (3, 'tone')]:
    runs, longest, cur = 0, 1, 1
    for a, b in zip(seq, seq[1:]):
        if a[k] == b[k]:
            cur += 1; runs += 1; longest = max(longest, cur)
        else:
            cur = 1
    print(f'{name:5s}: {runs} repeated adjacent pairs, longest run {longest}')
mediums = sum(1 for s in seq if s[2] == 'medium')
print(f'medium scale images: {mediums} of {len(seq)}')

type : 1 repeated adjacent pairs, longest run 2
scale: 3 repeated adjacent pairs, longest run 4
tone : 6 repeated adjacent pairs, longest run 3
medium scale images: 7 of 12

The check is crude, but it shows patterns that are hard to see when you are close to the work: in this draft, two portraits sit side by side at the bakery, and seven of the twelve images are medium scale, including a run of four in a row. Amara moves the apprentice portrait to the book only, and replaces one medium interior with a close detail of flour on a work glove, which breaks the run of medium shots.

One body of work, several outputs

The capstone usually needs more than one edit from the same body of work. The wall might take 15 to 20 images; a book can carry 30 to 40 because pages allow pacing and small images; a portfolio section might use 8 to 12; a social media launch might use 5 or 6. These are not simply shorter or longer versions of one list. Each format has its own logic: a wall is seen in space and often out of order, a book is seen page by page in a fixed order, a portfolio is skimmed by busy reviewers, and social posts are seen one at a time among other content. PHOT-430 lessons 2 and 3 cover format-specific editing in detail.

Testing the edit with viewers

Before fixing the edit, show it to people who have not seen the work. Watch rather than ask: where do they slow down, where do they skip, what do they say unprompted? Then ask open questions about what they think the project is about and which images stayed with them. Compare their answers with your statement of intent. If viewers consistently describe a different project from the one you intended, either the edit or the statement needs to change. Show the edit to some of the people in the work as well, especially where the agreement included review; their responses test representation as well as clarity.

Fixing the edit

Set a date to fix the edit for each output, and keep it. For Amara, the wall and book edits were fixed at the end of week 9 so that post-production could start; the portfolio and social edits could follow later because they had no external lead times. Record the final edits with file names and order in the process log and export small reference sheets. After the edit is fixed, changes should be rare and justified, because each change ripples into post-production, captions, the flatplan and the print order.