Editing slides
by Chris Nicholson

Editing slides is one of the most satisfying tasks for a photographer, because that's when you get to see the fruits of your efforts in the field. But it can also be a tedious and painful experience as you sort out the junk and fill up the trash can. Either way, it's a necessary part of the photography routine. (Digital photographers are not immune to this tedium — they work in a different medium, but editing is still editing, whether done on a light board or computer monitor.)

Golf bunker rake. Nikon F5, Tamron 300mm f/2.8. More Sports & Scenery Photos.

Here's my workflow when I edit slides:

1) The naked-eye edit

I lay out the slides on the light board. With a roll of slides before me, I quickly scan my eyes over the whole batch. I look for bad exposures (and failed bracketed frames), images with too much contrast, photos noticeably out of focus, and misfires (fuzzy shots of my pants leg, the ground, etc.). I pick out any obviously bad photos and drop them in the trash can.

2) The loupe edit

Using a good loupe (spend the money on a decent one — make sure it's clear and that you don't get nauseous after looking through it for a while), I closely examine each slide. I look for fuzzy focus, dark shadows or blown-out highlights.

Be merciless. If the photo is not good enough to show a client, if it's not good enough for me to spend time labeling and filing, then it belongs in the trash can. I keep A- and B-grade photos only. Sometimes I'll keep a C, but rarely. Ds and Fs go in the oval file (my trash can's not round).

Turkey Buzzard in Texas. Nikon F5, Nikkor 500mm f/4. More Wildlife Pictures.

Filling a trash can with rejected slides is not a sign of a bad shoot; rather, it's indicative of a good edit.

3) Sort

After I edit the slides, I'll be entering information about them in a database on my computer. To make that task easier, while the slides are still on the light board, I group them by category, orientation (horizontal versus vertical), exposure (mostly for sunsets — are they more red, or orange, or yellow?) and subject.

They then go into archival slide pages and await labels. (Read about how I file photos.)

Editing a roll of slides takes me about five minutes, so I can usually get through a day's worth of film in under an hour.