Process
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6 min read
How I edit a roll: one frame out of thirty-six
How I edit a roll: one frame out of thirty-six
A light table, a loupe, a pencil, and one rule I never break.
A light table, a loupe, a pencil, and one rule I never break.
E
E
very roll arrives the same way: twelve frames, sometimes thirty-six, still smelling faintly of the lab.
very roll arrives the same way: twelve frames, sometimes thirty-six, still smelling faintly of the lab.
I lay the strips on the light table before I look at anything on a screen. The first pass is fast — I mark anything that makes me stop, with a soft pencil, never a pen.
I lay the strips on the light table before I look at anything on a screen. The first pass is fast — I mark anything that makes me stop, with a soft pencil, never a pen.
The second pass
The second pass
The second pass is slow and cruel. I cover every frame except one, and ask whether it could open a story on its own. Most of them can’t, and that is fine — they are there to make the one that can.
The second pass is slow and cruel. I cover every frame except one, and ask whether it could open a story on its own. Most of them can’t, and that is fine — they are there to make the one that can.
Fig. 1 — Test strips, fibre paper
“Choose one frame, then sleep on it.”
“Choose one frame, then sleep on it.”
— Inès Moreau, on editing
When a story finally goes online, it gets three photographs on the home page — one tall, one wide, one small. That is the whole edit, and it is always the hardest part of the job.
When a story finally goes online, it gets three photographs on the home page — one tall, one wide, one small. That is the whole edit, and it is always the hardest part of the job.
Inès Moreau
Photographer & art director, Paris