What's poppin, people? It's Dante. Welcome to Module eight, Editing Practice and Mastery. We've spent the past seven modules learning how to apply layering in the street through understanding the art of composition, the foreground, middle ground, background light and shadow. How we can engage with humanity to influence our ability to practice layering in the streets. But now we're going to talk about editing. And this is where true mastery comes. It comes firstly through knowing how to pick the keeper. And so essentially, editing will reveal your skill, right? Anybody can get lucky, but editing is what separates luck from ability. And so essentially, editing is the art of selecting, the art of picking which photograph is the keeper photograph. And so when you're looking at your images, you must understand how the layers work together. And so essentially, when you have distance from your photographs and you don't edit immediately, you're going to create more clarity with your ability to make selections. And so the most important thing to do when photographing is to have a sort of distance from your images. You know, allow time to reveal strength, you know, separate yourself from the work and allow it to marinate. Don't go home immediately and make selections when you practice layering because the stronger images will survive distance. You'll want to edit these photos later down the line. Maybe you spend a month in a particular location photographing. Don't edit immediately, Allow yourself to come home and then go through the photos. And so a keeper feels like quiet confidence. Things will feel resolved in the picture. It won't feel like an accident. You don't need to add any explanation. When a photograph is a keeper photograph, you know, a caption isn't going to save your image, right? And so make sure when you're looking through your images that you recognize that what you're looking for with layers and is essentially the relationships between the different moments. You're not let necessarily looking for a single individual moment, but the background, the foreground. These things must relate to each other with clear separation. And this is how you're going to decide which photos to keep and which photos to ditch. And so make sure you recognize that the structure and the relationship between these different elements are what carries the image and creates a keeper photograph. And so it's important to kill your favorite shots, right? Where attachment is going to blind your judgment. The viewer doesn't necessarily notice the effort involved in making a picture. Just because a picture was complex and hard to make doesn't necessarily mean that it was stronger. And so looking at this photograph I made of the wall that separates Israel And Palestine. It's a strong frame. We have this sweeping tail of the horse, a bottle mid flip, and a strong background that gives emotional weight to the picture. However, when you start to compare similar frames that you make, you, you can start to recognize what photograph is the true keeper. And so with this image, you can see I made a strong photograph of the wall of this boy throwing the baby stroller against the wall, giving a looming shadow to the picture, right? And so essentially, when you compare the two photographs, it's something that you can sense almost immediately, you know, which photo to keep and which photo to ditch. Where this photograph holds your attention, this photograph carries weight. The there's something emotionally interesting about the juxtaposition between the wall and the playful energy of the boy and the looming shadow that adds mystery where your eye lingers in this frame. It's something that you can tell when comparing two images where you're basically going to stop scrolling, you're going to look at the photo for a longer period of time, and you're just going to sense the structure is holding itself much more clearly than the other photograph that you're comparing. And so it's important when making a selection of work that it's important to create a body of work that is strong, right? 10 strong photographs will beat 100 weak photographs. And so your editing essentially is what's going to define your work. And so make sure that you slim down your selection. Sometimes when you travel to a new place, you may only come home with a few frames. Maybe you spend a year photographing. Think more critically about your selections. At the end of the year, recognize that if you maybe, just maybe make one strong photograph per month, that that's pretty successful after all, you know, sometimes a year goes by and you might only a few frames, but if you're gauging your work based around a variety of quantity as opposed to quality, then your work will start to fall flat. But recognize that making a selection of a few stronger photographs is way better and will create a stronger voice. And so pick what works. You know, sometimes a photograph may have a strong moment. Other times a photograph may have stronger relationships and structure. But between different moments, you're going to have to select which photograph works better than the other. It's not always going to come down to subjectively what you like, but through distant distancing yourself from the work, you're going to more objectively be able to edit and select which photographs survive and which photographs are ditched. And so reading layers during editing. Editing is essentially reverse engineering you're going to have to rebuild the image mentally, right? Identify the foreground, identify the middle ground and background, and understand how the photograph was constructed at the scene so that you can sort of reverse engineer these ideas and see if they actually come through clearly in the image when you were building it. And so when you read this frame, you know, if it's got lots of layers, you know, recognize the depth, you know, your photograph should allow the viewer's eye to travel from front to back, from back to front. There should be a smooth visual flow with no confusion, right? The depth must be clear. The structure and separation between the different elements must appear. And so separation, this is everything having clean edges, clear silhouettes. Space between elements is important. Where the layers must not collapse and overlap. And so each layer must earn its place, right? The foreground will add weight. The background will support the subject. Where the middle ground is where the juice of the photo lies, right? So remove weak layers. When you're editing through your photographs, recognize that each layer must earn its place placed and must support the bigger picture. And so visual hierarchy matters, right? Where does the eye go first? Where does it go second? The viewer should have this natural guidance throughout the frame. You should feel the hierarchy very naturally when looking at the picture and recognize that order and structure is much more important than clutter and chaos. And so reveal simplicity will reveal strength in your frame, right? Where busy frames collapse. So a lot of the times, the best layered photographs actually simply have clear structure and strong relationships between each other. And so I implore you to think more critically about how you can subtract the superfluous from your frames and reveal with clarity what actually comes through with your intention and what you were focused on when you made that photograph. For instance, here we can compare similar frames, right? Looking at different photographs that you made of similar situations or at similar scenes is a really good way to understand which photograph is the case keeper. And actually, I attended a workshop with Alex Webb. I received the scholarship actually to. To learn under Alex Webb very early on in my journey. And I presented these photographs to him in a bookmaking workshop. And I asked him about sequencing and editing. And I discussed this frame with him. And in particular, he told me which photograph actually is the keeper. He told me that this photograph is the keeper. You know, despite there being two similar scenes and both photographs being strong, you have to avoid emotional editing. You have to forget the effort involved in creating which, when you created a certain frame, right? Judge the structure. Judge the sort of structure of the frame over the emotional weight. That a picture might have with you. You know, that sort of subjective attitude that you may have, where when Webb told me that this photograph is stronger, it really did just click for me. You know, the fact that the structure and the emotional weight of the face for expression of this subject in the picture sort of carries more impact as opposed to the complex moment, you know, makes more sense to me. This is a much more simplified frame that you can read more clearly. And the structure and the hierarchy is much more visible, despite the scene being extremely similar of children playing within a tree. And so I have two photographs of these children playing in a tree, and only one can survive and be the one that we keep. And so you can see when I look at these two frames, they're very similar. However, the photograph on the right hand side is the keeper due to the way that the structure and the hierarchy and also the facial expression of the girl is much more visually engaging. Right. There's something about the way that I actually removed more from the frame that allows this more structured picture. And the moment, it's much more defined. And so layers must read clearly. Right. Separation is non negotiable. So think more critically when viewing your images, whether or not your eye is being guided throughout the frame clearly. So clarity will always win in the end. And so we're going to now talk about contact sheets as a proof of skill. Right. The contact sheets tell the truth. When you review your contact sheets, they're not highlight reels now. They're not lucky frames anymore. Right. You're going to be showing the process and that will ultimately reveal your skill. Actually, one fun thing about this contact sheet that I want to share with you. I was photographing these boys and these girls playing here in the streets of Baltimore. And I was there at the scene and I was looking at so many different things. And it was really hard to put order to the frame as the children are playing. And, you know, we made a photograph right here. It's very blurry, but the moment was beautiful of this child leaping against the wall. And so to make a decision and pick which photograph came together and made more sense was actually kind of difficult because both frames were very strong. However, this frame wound up being the keeper because of the energy. You know, there's something more about the emotional weight of this picture. The joy, the smiles and the shadow looming created more drama in the frame. And so when you look at a contact sheet, you can understand how you're moving through the street and how you see. And also, funnily enough, I gave my Ricoh GR2 at the time to one of the kids and allowed him to play. It was kind of funny because, you know, this all connects to my idea of engaging with humanity. And I think that sort of snapshot of me kind of reveals the truth of my process and how I genuinely work this way. And so layering is something that I believe will allow you to achieve more depth in your pictures visually, but also emotionally, where the photographs you make with layers will have more impact on a viewer. You know, I believe that when you're editing and you're sequencing and you're looking through your work, it's important to pick the photographs that actually carry weight and that have depth and that allow the viewer to hold their position, looking at the picture and allowing the sort of. Sort of visual feast to create the impact on the viewer. And so a contact sheet is interesting where it sort of shows your process. It shows how you see right where the micro adjustments and the movement of your body throughout the scene reveal itself very naturally. And it shows how you solve the visual puzzle. And so a weak contact sheet will reveal something about your work and how you're seeing. Sometimes you'll be photographing way too loosely and shooting too many different things. But the real beauty of reviewing the contact sheet is dissecting how you see and how you moving through the world influences the things that you make. And so you'll. You'll see your progress very visibly by looking at a contact sheet. You'll see how you start to, you know, look at a scene and how you break things down. You know, where I'm photographing this boy playing against the wall in relationship to the man smoking a cigarette. And I eventually wound up moving my physical body and waiting with repetition at that same angle at the same scene, but photographing with repetition over and over again with consistency to then reveal the moment very naturally. And so firstly, photographing with a flat frame, but then eventually coming home with the photograph with depth and layers through me, adjusting my body. And so progress is visible in these contact sheets. And you'll start to dissect how you see and how you work in the street. And so you'll also learn about how you think and how you solve these visual problems. And so when you're looking through your contact sheets, notice patterns, right? Ask why certain photos work over others. You'll start to see very naturally how your sort of senses are activated when on the street. You know, I'm here photographing these shadows looming on the wall in Baltimore. And then I move back and start to add the human elements within my frame, Building my frame by recognizing that thing that triggered me initially, being the shadows, and then moving back to photograph the scene and actually capture more depth and layers at this particular moment in Baltimore. And so I value contact sheets because it essentially reveals my consistency. It shows that I'm not necessarily just getting lucky, but I'm solving problems visually by moving my body through the world and making sure that I create a strong frame. By revealing the process in the contact sheet, you can start to discover how those frames were made. And so, essentially, your habits will begin to show when looking at contact sheets. You'll start to recognize why the process matters and start to understand more critically about how you see, see, and so why some photos fail, right? Sometimes you'll have those almost moments, right? And so those almost unresolved moments might feel close, but incomplete. And so sometimes it could occur where a gesture falls short or something overlaps, right? Maybe the frame is slightly off and there's some clutter in the picture. You know, you'll start to notice these things when you go through your work, where sometimes one layer may break the image. And so you want to make sure that all of the layers work in harmony. If the foreground works but the background fails, and the photograph may be unsuccessful. And so recognize why certain photos are weak and why certain photos are strong. And oftentimes it has to do with the way in which the structure holds the photo together. And so sometimes timing can be the issue where you stop too soon or you didn't wait long enough. And so it's important to make sure that you're staying there and present at the scene. You know, where bad positioning can't be fixed. You can't simply make yourself go back in time and fix the photo by you positioning yourself in a different way. But you can go through the contact sheets and learn from. From the way that you positioned yourself and understand that you should have moved to the left or moved to the right to create more structure and use the geometry to your advantage. No amount of editing can solve this problem. And so when we're photographing and making layers, recognize that adding too much complexity essentially hides the weakness of the photograph. And so sometimes a busy frame can feel exciting, but then later, at the moment that you're editing, it can fall short and fall apart. So always remember that the goal of you as a photographer working with layers is to create structure, strong hierarchy. And so when you're photographing and you come home and you import your shots, make sure you give yourself some Space, you know, because if you're attached to these moments, if you remember the effort involved in making the photograph, the viewer doesn't know this, and you don't need to explain how the photo was made, essentially. So don't be attached to your photo, because this will blind your judgment. No, making selections, right, like, ultimately, letting go is mastery. If I have to choose between this photo of the children in the tree at Penn's Landing or the photo of the girls in the tree in Baltimore, I'm not afraid to throw this photo on the cutting room floor because I favor clarity and structure, and I choose resolution. You know, this is where confidence matters. When you're looking through your work, it requires you to be disciplined and almost just extremely objective when looking through the work in order to create a strong body of work. And so avoid these almost shots, right? If you're seeing in your frames that things are overlapping and that moments were fleeting and you didn't catch them, recognize how you can solve these problems. Move your body more, stay longer, Allow the scene to resolve. You have to remember that patience, timing, you know, these things are critical. And so when you make a photo that isn't so strong, edit ruthlessly and throw it away. And so being close is not the only thing that counts, right? What matters is whether or not you have resolution in your frame. That there is structure, that there is something there that is readable, that there are relationships that are clearly defined between the different planes. And so essentially, only keep what matters, you know, only keep what holds your attention. Remove those other photographs from your catalog that you don't necessarily think are strong. And so here are some common layering mistakes and some fixes that you can think about. So when we're out there and we're shooting, don't force the frame, right? Don't be chasing moments, overshooting. You know, essentially you don't want to have yourself always hunting and always moving and running and gunning. So slow down, wait, be patient. Recognize that to build a frame from front to back requires patience. You know, over complicating is one of these big problems in layering. In street photography, where you're trying to include too many elements, there is no hierarchy. There's lots of visual noise and complexity. But the goal is to actually reduce and simplify these things so you can create proper structure and relationships throughout the frame. Sometimes you may have poor positioning where there's subjects that are merging or the photograph falls flat. And so it's important for you to move your body and adjust your body in relationship to the subject and the background to create strong hierarchy and depth within your picture. And so if you're ignoring light, you, you're going to start having weak separation, because with flat contrast, the photograph becomes more difficult to read. And so without light, there is no form. And so find the light firstly and build your structure secondarily. And so if you're just adding layers just for the sake of adding layers, but they don't provide meaning, it's going to essentially fall flat. You know, I don't think that you always need to add. You can actually think more so about how you can subtract in order to create stronger relationships. And so make sure that you're layering with intention and you're not just adding things superfluously. And so sometimes a photographer may have ego to try to impress other photographers with their ability to layer. But the way in which we try to add complexity can often weaken images. And so just be honest when you're at a scene. Photograph what life gives you and don't try to add more just to impress. Sometimes patience can be boring and tedious, but if you leave too early, you're going to miss the shot. So you need to make sure that you stay longer at these scenes. Always centering photographs can be extremely boring. It can become static and predictable. And so when you're photographing and you're making a composition and you're trying to structure the frame, don't always center everything right. Use space dynamically from left to right, you know, drop low, adjust your body, and make sure that when you're adding depth to your picture, that you're not always centering the subject in the center of the frame. And so one thing about layering that you may see in contemporary street photography is that people are starting to copy each other with surface imitation without actually understanding how these relationships between the different planes are made. Right? And so by understanding the foundational principles of composition, of layering of light, you can start to make these kind of frames from your own personal voice. And so essentially, all you really need to know about layering is that you are responsible for where you position your physical body in relationship to the subject, the background, and when you click the shutter, you don't need to go out there and try to copy what other people are doing and how they're photographing or where they're photographing. But understanding the foundational process principles of composition is going to allow you to apply layering to your toolkit very easily. And so these mistakes that you make, they're signals they're signals for you to slow down, to simplify and correct these things consciously. And so be ruthless when editing and be ruthless when determining which photos are something you want to keep and which photos are something you want to ditch. And so now we'll be discussing repetition and walking the same streets. This is one of the most important things to hone in on, because repetition, this is where novelty will fade, right? You start to sharpen your perception by returning to the same streets over and over again, you're going to be reacting less and responding more. Where the more you go out there and walk the same mundane lane every single day, the more you will start to see. And so familiar streets remove guesswork. You'll start to know where the light falls, you'll start to know where movement patterns, you'll start to see the repeated backgrounds. And. And your anticipation is going to replace that constant need of hunting and searching. And so in my hometown, I like to stick to one route and follow it for an entire year. You know, I think it's important for you to hone in on repetition and consistency. And so I encourage you to find a route and stick to it. With repetition comes the removal of guesswork. And so layering improves through recognition. It requires you to have this ability to recognize patterns and spatial awareness and time the moments with intuition. And so essentially, by going out there and practicing your photography, by following the same route with repetition, you can improve through your intuition and recognition as you're out there in the streets. And so treat the street as a visual gym. You know, I like to return to bus stops, corners, crosswalks. I take endless walks the same way every single day in order for me to hone in on my photo. And so progress will start to become visible as you start to see. Your photographs have more clean separation, better timing, stronger layering. You know, when you're looking at your frames, think about the hierarchy between the foreground, middle ground, and background and whether or not these things are easy to read. This is how progress starts to become visible in your results. And so repetition is going to allow you to work the muscle, that sort of creative muscle, you know, and so the more that you walk, the more that you see, right? The more that you see, the more that you photograph. And the more that you photograph, the more curious you become. And through that curiosity, there's going to be less overshooting, there's going to be more timing, there's going to be more patience. You're going to know when to stop, when you're working a scene because when you're curious and you're out there in the world and you're photographing with repetition, you're going to then build restraint. You're going to have the confidence that replaces the anxiety when you're out there trying to make frames, right? You know, so essentially, the more that you're doing the thing itself, the stronger you will become at doing this thing. And so shoot more. Okay? And so with depth, you can go so much deeper in one location as opposed to trying to spread yourself out at a million different spots, right. I think when you go and you travel, right, this can inspire you, if you course. But repetition is what's going to train you. And I honed in on repetition in my hometown in order for me to build my sort of ability to practice layering. And then when I go and travel to a new place, I'm able to execute. But it's important for you to know a place deeply, and so go deep in your hometown over trying to travel to a million different places, right? And so boredom is a signal, right. Once the surface novelty is exhausted, you know you're going to start seeing deeper, right? When you're feeling boredom, that's a sign that you're doing something. Because really, when you sit in that boredom, this is where you start to level up. So stay longer, stay patient, and watch life unfold. And so when you photograph in the stream, same streets over and over again, you're going to build mastery. You know, this street, Market street, is where I learned how to practice layering in my photography. In my hometown, Philadelphia, I saw this man with the rooster pretty much every single day, it seemed, you know, when I would go out there, and so I remember him, and I would always look for him if I was out there on Market street and then eventually make a photograph. And so when you're familiar with the locations that you're shooting, you start to recognize the patterns of the people and where they're going to be. You start to study the light and commit to these locations. Because once you're in a sort of flow state, that's where all of your improvement comes from. It comes from the repetition of putting in the actual reps and staying committed to the practice. So repetition is where you start to train. And so training your eyes for layers is, you know, it's all about seeing and perception. You know, seeing in layers isn't something that you can sort of force, right? It's something that you learn, right. It's not a talent. It's not something that you just innately possess, but it's training your perception to form objects and form moments, to structure, right? You start to see the relationships between the different moments that occur on a street corner. And so slow down. This is how you're going to see more. You know, I find that by walking 75% slower than everybody around me, I start to see more deeply and recognize the patterns and recognize the relationships that I can build all throughout my frame. And so scan in planes, not subjects. Here in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, I made a photograph of these people playing here and sledding on a winter day in the snow. And what I did was set my stage and structure in relationship to that gazebo. I found my background firstly, and then worked back to front, feeling the rest of the frame naturally by making that relationship between the background and the foreground in my frame. And so repetition will train the eye. Go back to the same location, recognize the patterns, sense the possibility by anticipating these moments. Because once you become in tune with a root, the prediction is going to start happening before the moments even occur. And so when you're in tune with the light, this is also going to train your vision faster. You know, look for the light firstly, watch the shadows. Recognize that separation through contrast is what's going to give form to the layers in your frame. And so structure without light can sometimes fall flat. So find the light, study the light, and go to the places where you're nearest, where there will be light. And so you'll start to see before even raising the camera. The photographs become like an intuitive sense. You know, when you're looking at life, you don't really even need to raise the camera to your eye, because you're going to start to see these things so clearly that all you need to do is then position your body and click the shot. You know, when you go out there and you're making pictures, essentially you're looking at the world. You're not just snapping randomly, you're sensing the possibility. You're positioning your body, and it's kind of, you know, intuitive after a while, right? And so when you're out there and you're shooting and you come home, edit, edit your work down. Make sure that you're only keeping the photos that are sound, that have structure. Study your failures and failures and learn from your mistakes and train your eye to see this way. You know, it really does come down to putting in the time. It's going to come down to consistency and repetition at the end of the day. There's no other way to master layering but the art of walking, seeing, observing, and trying over and over again. This thing is 99% failure. You'll never come home with a good photo if you don't recognize that if you're out there and you're trying so hard to come home with a good photo, that mindset will kill you. So really try to spot patterns, you know, allow those failures to inform you for that next outing with your camera. And so with instinct, you know, this kind of intuitive sense of, like, understanding patterns and recognizing where you must position your body, this is earned through repetition. This is earned through observation. This is earned through failure and reflection on your work. And so recognize that the flow state is what you want to tap into, the flow state of just producing more photos. Because the more you photograph, the more repetition, the better your observations will be. And so layering will become an instinct. It's not something that you can train overnight naturally, but it's something that will appear in your toolkit, appear in your way in which you see the world over time through repetition. And so structure will start to become natural. Right? This kind of act of making a photograph from front to back with the layers of foreground, middle ground, and background is mastery of composition. It really does require discipline. It requires you to show up and be there with your camera. And so I'm going to leave you with that simple fact here at the end of this module, as we're now wrapping up this course. The next module will bring you onto the streets in Mumbai, India, where I show you, show you behind the scenes exactly how I practice layering in street photography. And so I encourage you to go out there to shoot more, to walk more, to hone in with repetition. And eventually you will start to improve your intuition to seeing layers like an instinct. And so thank you for tuning in to this module and I will see you in the next one.