Editing photographs: do not overfile, do not underfile, but where is the middle ground?

How many photos from an event should be sent to the editors?

In already forgotten times of film photography, the restricting factor was amount of film used, which needed to be processed, then scanned. Photographers shot less and edited their materials more carefully, resulting in less pictures on the editor’s desk. Digital cameras changed all of that. Now photographers, liberated by practically unlimited storage for digital pictures, shoot hundreds of frames in an event that used to be shot on a single roll of film – that’s 36 frames for those out there unfamiliar with that artifact. The editors, in turn, end up going through dozens of, for example, portraits, differing from each other by a slight tilt of a subject’s head. When photographers can not decide between several almost identical frames, they tend to send them all to the editors. And, just as often, they complain afterwards: “why did they use that picture, when I gave them the better one?” The fact is – you gave them the lousy one too!

Each of us out on the field has the opportunity to control the quality of pictures that are being used. We just need to make sure only the best photos are sent to the editor. Usually, one shot per situation is enough. Instead of sending a “variety” of similar shots with insignificant changes in detail, focus on creating different situations by changing the angle, lights, background, scene, or the pose of your subject. The same rule goes for portraits too, unless the subject’s expression changes radically between frames. Even then, one shot of each different expression should suffice – one smiling shot, one serious shot, one crying shot, etc.

In newspapers world, from a smaller event involving small number of subjects, i.e. news conferences, portraits, etc., 5 pictures is often enough, in choice of vertical and horizontal shapes whenever possible. It all changes, of course, with the importance of the event – if there is a chance that the event will be considered for the front page, wider selection would be wise – another 3-5 strong pictures, for example.
Bigger events such as protests, celebrations and similar, with many different participants, will need more pictures. From my experience, a choice of 10 good shots including verticals and horizontals, details and overalls, is usually enough. The questions I ask the editor when being sent on an assignments were:
- How big are we playing the event? or How many pictures are expected from it? – meaning how much space for coverage the newspaper has? If it’s a one-picture story, it falls under small event.
- How many photographers from our paper are going to be there? – if there are more of us shooting the same event, we should edit tighter and send less pictures each than if only one is covering the whole thing.
- Do we need filers from it? – file pictures, to be used later, can be sent separately.

Magazines operate under different rules. Magazine photo editors prefer wider selection of photographs per story to choose from. That means wider variety of different situations, rather than greater number of similar shots. To establish exactly how many is too many, the best way is to talk to the photo editor when starting a new job for a magazine, or a newspaper.

As a conclusion, how many photos we file from each shoot draws an image of what kind of professional we are:
Sending too many photos usually shows inexperience and/or indecisiveness. It could be justified if a photographer didn’t have enough time for proper edit and decided to rather give too much than not enough.
Sending too few photos shows hastiness and/or a photographer unfamiliar with the need of employer.
To find the balance, get familiar with the need of the publication and the style of photographs it uses, then talk to the photo editor about how many is enough photos per assignment.