BACK TO FIELD NOTES

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR SELECTS

Edit ruthlessly. Most of what you shoot will be filler. Find the two or three frames that aren't.

The hardest part of any roll isn't shooting it. It's editing it. Most of the frames will be near misses — the cup of coffee, the friend looking down, the street that looked better in person. That's the job of a contact sheet: to give you something to reject.

Look once, fast. Mark the ones that pull your eye. Then look again, slow. Cut everything that doesn't earn its place.

If you keep more than three from a roll of thirty-six, you're being generous. If you keep one, you're being honest. Either way, the discipline of choosing is what turns shooting film into a practice instead of an output.