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How a Nat Geo Photographer Selects the Best Images from a Shoot | Whittle Down | WIRED

Steve Winter has been a contributing wildlife photographer with National Geographic for over 20 years. As a wildlife photographer, Steve always has tons of photographs to sift through, and eventually whittle down. Watch as Steve lays out how he actually goes about choosing the perfect photograph. Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► Listen…

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Steve Winter has been a contributing wildlife photographer with National Geographic for over 20 years. As a wildlife photographer, Steve always has tons of photographs to sift through, and eventually whittle down. Watch as Steve lays out how he actually goes about choosing the perfect photograph.

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How a Nat Geo Photographer Selects the Best Images from a Shoot | Whittle Down | WIRED

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210 Comments

210 Comments

  1. Kobe Ken

    December 22, 2021 at 6:27 pm

    I suggest you move to mirrorless camera ,it can save much time. Especially in AF and Exposure.

  2. Venom

    December 22, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    They need to do a Wired Interview for Eminem

  3. Tonyisgaming

    December 22, 2021 at 6:39 pm

    I’m surprised and intrigued by his method. Sometimes an over/underexposed shot has great framing. I often will keep it based on that alone. If you’re shooting in the right digital format, you can do a lot in Lightroom to fix it.

    • Katarina Janoskova

      December 22, 2021 at 9:54 pm

      Yeah. I was thinking the same. It so often happens that I shoot something and it’s not well exposed as I had the settings for previous frame/place but looks good so often I quickly edit all ok looking photos first before going to another round of pruning.

    • Irnbruist

      December 22, 2021 at 10:36 pm

      wanted to say exactly the same, wtf this pictures taken with a moderately new camera are more than workable and I would rather take one of this if the composition and moment is good than just look at the technical „perfect“ ones…

    • JRTayl0r

      December 22, 2021 at 10:51 pm

      Yeah, my first pass is exposure correction.

  4. Kimberly G.

    December 22, 2021 at 6:46 pm

    Talks a lot about “telling a story”; selects a white cat on white background with no context or story.
    Alrighty then.

  5. Sarah Fowler Wolfe

    December 22, 2021 at 6:54 pm

    I think the city one is a better story…but he’s right photographically the one he chose is best. Great to see his process!

  6. jonners

    December 22, 2021 at 6:56 pm

    There are “Small Businesses” that take £6,000 a day. Its a joke!!!

  7. abhigejf

    December 22, 2021 at 6:56 pm

    Take 100 pictures. Pick the best one.

    Gottit.

    • Ro Bro

      December 22, 2021 at 7:46 pm

      Yeah, more or less.

  8. Ayas Waeswynn

    December 22, 2021 at 7:02 pm

    Neural network can do this better and faster

  9. Financial Shinanigan

    December 22, 2021 at 7:04 pm

    I’m glad this video isn’t underexposed.

  10. Mandy 🔴T[A]P Me!! to Have [𝐒]𝐄𝐗 With 𝐌𝐞

    December 22, 2021 at 7:10 pm

    Wired stays answering the questions I didn’t know I needed the answers to

  11. ATGG

    December 22, 2021 at 7:14 pm

    *”Not good enough!”*

  12. Laiyla 🔥𝐆𝐨 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 [𝐋!𝐯𝐞]

    December 22, 2021 at 7:39 pm

    I wonder if his decision would have been different if the assignment was portraiture and not wildlife photography

  13. Ri

    December 22, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    He really had me in the first half with that final choice.

  14. air90air

    December 22, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    With lightroom, under/over exposure is easily fixed. No need to throw out the whole picture.

    • Luke Dowsing

      December 22, 2021 at 10:32 pm

      Nat Geo is very weird in that they won’t edit photos ever. Compositional or lighting problems that can be easily fixed in lightroom arent, as well as all the other things you can do in lightroom with colour grading and mix, grain, texture vignette etc…

    • Just a Zebra that does minecraft totorials

      December 23, 2021 at 12:01 am

      This is most likely because they take these photos as JPEG and so there’s minimal change that can be made to expose after shooting

  15. Reeta 🤳𝐹**СК МЕ - СНЕ𝒞𝒦 𝑀𝒴 Р𝑅𝟢𝐹𝐼𝐿Е

    December 22, 2021 at 8:00 pm

    I wonder if his decision would have been different if the assignment was portraiture and not wildlife photography

  16. Ulrika

    December 22, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    Really cool concept!

  17. deepsy2k

    December 22, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    Nooo, wrong choice!

  18. Candace 𝔽**СК МЕ - СНЕℂ𝕂 𝕄𝕐 Рℝ𝟘𝔽𝕀𝕃Е💛

    December 22, 2021 at 9:23 pm

    Great topic. Whoever came up with this one deserves a lil bonus.

  19. A Y

    December 22, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    i love how he talks lol

  20. Sam

    December 22, 2021 at 10:20 pm

    Horrible location, im sorry but all images sucked. Im sure hes a great photograper otherwise.

  21. Jessica Andrade

    December 22, 2021 at 11:13 pm

    I really liked that picture as well. I learned so much!

  22. Étoine de Vries

    December 22, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    We actually just saw a television program with a competition between 10 famous dutch persons. It was about photography and the winner will have a photoshoot for a National Geographics magazine, really cool

  23. Just a Zebra that does minecraft totorials

    December 23, 2021 at 12:02 am

    One of your best videos yet. Very nice

  24. alice L

    December 23, 2021 at 12:21 am

    I love the one he chose- definetly my favourite out of all the ones we were shown.

  25. NENCY- 👈𝓕**СК МЕ - СНЕ𝓒𝓚 𝓜𝓨 Р𝓡0𝓕𝓘𝓛Е 💗

    December 23, 2021 at 3:11 am

    I think the city one is a better story…but he’s right photographically the one he chose is best. Great to see his process!

  26. Mioto Hamura

    December 23, 2021 at 3:50 am

    I don’t agree with the last choice. There is no right choice and it is always depends on your own vision.

  27. ツRicardo

    December 23, 2021 at 4:15 am

    10:16 loved the above picture, i think the pose of the cat, the shadow on the wall, the tail constrasting with the background, the lightning, everything is spot on. The only think i can argue is the lack of a history, but the prettiest one is this one imo

    Edit: I thought about it, and the lack of a history really affects the overall product, is it pretty? Yes. Is it appealing? No. So yeah, after deeply analyzing I agree with him. What do you think?

    • Juan Luis Bustamante

      December 23, 2021 at 5:52 am

      Yeah, I like more the first one, but imo the cat is too much close to the frame, so idk

  28. Dani 🔥T[A]P Me!! to Have [𝐒]𝐄𝐗 With 𝐌𝐞

    December 23, 2021 at 4:24 am

    With lightroom, under/over exposure is easily fixed. No need to throw out the whole picture.

    • Mats F

      December 23, 2021 at 7:06 am

      Well nowadays, but not 20 years ago;)

  29. Victoria Lopes

    December 23, 2021 at 4:32 am

    Lovely 😍

  30. Becky-💖 𝐹**СК МЕ - СНЕ𝒞𝒦 𝑀𝒴 Р𝑅𝟢𝐹𝐼𝐿Е

    December 23, 2021 at 4:32 am

    I wonder if his decision would have been different if the assignment was portraiture and not wildlife photography

  31. İbrahim Kutlu

    December 23, 2021 at 4:33 am

    Kind of reminds of Squid Game how you never except which is gonna be eliminated

  32. Jasmina 👈𝓕**СК МЕ - СНЕ𝓒𝓚 𝓜𝓨 Р𝓡0𝓕𝓘𝓛Е 💗

    December 23, 2021 at 4:44 am

    I’m surprised and intrigued by his method. Sometimes an over/underexposed shot has great framing. I often will keep it based on that alone. If you’re shooting in the right digital format, you can do a lot in Lightroom to fix it.

  33. AKFTX

    December 23, 2021 at 8:24 am

    So basically it’s common sense. Make sure it’s not fuzzy , and framed well. Then choose the e photo you like lol thanks !

  34. Quinn F.

    December 23, 2021 at 8:25 am

    underexposed

  35. Mar Yati

    December 23, 2021 at 8:52 am

    For the first time I am bored with Wired video!

  36. Triple

    December 23, 2021 at 9:19 am

    Honestly, throwing out shots simply because they’re over- or under-exposed is ridiculous to me. As a fellow photographer, albeit still an amateur, I’ve found most cameras are ISO invariant – meaning the exposure can simply be bumped up in post with little to no loss in quality. I find it extremely wasteful to just throw out potentially perfectly good shots like that.

    • Kara Gania

      December 23, 2021 at 11:33 am

      He said he use to shoot film and film don’t have much options to change exposure like now we have, maybe that’s the reason. I mean it might not be logical for us but for him that’s the way he chooses out of habit build due to decades of working that way.

  37. andrearusky

    December 23, 2021 at 9:59 am

    this video started pretty bad… an underexposed photo doesn’t mean you can’t recover it! especially with digital and raw files. come on!

  38. andrearusky

    December 23, 2021 at 10:01 am

    what a waste and not environment friendly to print all those photos just to do this stupid selection.. just review them on a computer screen!

    • Jack Raptor

      December 23, 2021 at 1:12 pm

      Wow congrats,, you just save the whole Africa

  39. andrearusky

    December 23, 2021 at 10:02 am

    “underexposed… underexposed… underexpose” well.. you shot them! what a waste of time this video!

  40. Adriano Santos

    December 23, 2021 at 12:04 pm

    Hmm, so he talks about the city the entire clip, or mostly, and in the end no city… Not very coherent in that aspect.

  41. Justin

    December 23, 2021 at 1:34 pm

    That satisfaction when he picks the same one you did haha

  42. luke gaillard

    December 23, 2021 at 2:32 pm

    Dude takes off his mask to speak. SMH. That’s when it’s the most useful.

  43. Adrian Tamas

    December 23, 2021 at 3:07 pm

    Beware! This is a full photography course disguised as an entertaining Youtube clip…

  44. David Gilchrist

    December 23, 2021 at 3:08 pm

    he said “we don’t know what it’s doing or where it’s at” exactly what he said he was looking for the whole time lol 🤦‍♂️

  45. Atoms Apple

    December 23, 2021 at 3:24 pm

    I IMAGINEd being the CAT listening to this person EXPLAIN what PICTURE He chose.

  46. Ahmed Imam

    December 23, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    So photography is about selecting the right click.

  47. Eric Carabetta

    December 23, 2021 at 10:26 pm

    I would have gone the other way, the all white photo doesn’t have enough contrast and the cat gets lost, the building one tells more of a story and the cat feels like a part of it.

  48. Shortfuse Film

    December 23, 2021 at 10:38 pm

    Most truly great photography goes against everything this video is talking about, the rigid basics of photography, while still valid, have mostly been thrown out the window since 1950!!

    • josh berkin

      December 27, 2021 at 3:18 am

      I think this guy knows what he’s talking about though

  49. Justa Youtuber

    December 24, 2021 at 1:51 am

    Playing at 1.5 speed is perfect for this video

  50. winkipinky

    December 24, 2021 at 7:09 am

    Well this mostly useless info.. all common sense stuff, nothing mind-blowing here to see.

  51. Casper

    December 24, 2021 at 8:14 am

    It’s time Youtube allows for playing at twice the speed.

    • Teej Coile

      December 27, 2021 at 11:13 am

      It’s allowed that for over a decade

  52. JG002

    December 24, 2021 at 10:29 am

    Great video, some bits kinda felt like a parody of the photography industry though 🤔

  53. Bethenny Dove

    December 24, 2021 at 10:45 am

    Now I can take nudes better.

  54. Lindström-Lewis

    December 24, 2021 at 2:58 pm

    Pretty much the last 2 photos should’ve failed the earlier screening process…sometimes things like this just takes guts

  55. circeus

    December 24, 2021 at 3:27 pm

    “And I don’t like the look on its face it’s kinda evil”. What. Evil resting face is one of the best features of the average cat!

  56. Vimal V

    December 24, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    I could see Mr.Steve saying “bye-bye” to all the images in my camera right now… His criteria for good images is excellent.

  57. jadusja

    December 24, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    Sooooo out dated in 2021

  58. killing field

    December 24, 2021 at 10:21 pm

    Nnnnoooooo! #2 was better 😮😭☠️

  59. Kevin Luo

    December 24, 2021 at 10:42 pm

    Now do “How a video editor edits wired videos”.

    • xdfckt

      December 28, 2021 at 4:42 am

      Bye Bye

  60. TheFPSChannel

    December 25, 2021 at 5:17 am

    Selecting first for exposure? Ummmm….no. First you select images that make you feel something…then you get picky.

  61. Barykada

    December 25, 2021 at 10:47 am

    Nat geo plays squid game 😅

  62. Alex

    December 26, 2021 at 6:12 pm

    Very modern way to print thumbnails of high resolution photos to choose the best photo of the shoot 😂

  63. Rahul Prasad

    December 27, 2021 at 9:50 am

    White people problems

  64. Sagoté

    December 27, 2021 at 1:58 pm

    How tf do you get so many pictures wrong in such a controlled environment as a professional photographer??
    Like, I can understand that you got to experiment with framing and everything that has to do with the storyline side of it. But over/underxposure with natural lights, artificial lights, flash and reflectors? He probably missed by less than a stop, too. That is easily corrected in post processing.

    And the feathers and people hand’s

    You can cut them of with the resolution of modern cameras (and even then how did he saw the hands in the frame and then decided that he didn’t like them)

    Honestly, I’m baffled that this is a professional

    • Nude Nut

      December 28, 2021 at 7:34 am

      How tf do you so completely misunderstand the assignment when its written in the title?

      He’s a natgeo photographer showing you HIS process. He was asked to get it down to one, not choose a selection for editing. So many of the images were ok and a slight edit would be good. But….

      Natgeo famously doesn’t use edited images, so that informs his choice.

      Honestly, Your arrogance is astounding in the face of your ignorance and lack of comprehension. Baffled is the least of your problems.

  65. Mitchell Hughes

    December 27, 2021 at 5:13 pm

    Those are all bad

  66. Hermann Ibragimow

    December 27, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    The topic is super interesting but I fell asleep twice. Wonder why

  67. Anachronologist

    December 28, 2021 at 6:48 am

    *U N D E R – E X P O S E D*

  68. Charlie Jobling

    December 28, 2021 at 1:30 pm

    If he’s been a photographer for over 20 years, why is he (unless just for this video) taking photographs with people in them or feathers over the cats face, why not just wait till everything is right before being trigger happy?!

  69. Pest

    December 28, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    Boring choice

  70. angel gomez

    December 28, 2021 at 8:05 pm

    Why the miniature shows 124 pics XD

  71. Mert Karacayil

    December 28, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    Over exposed over exposed… under exposed underexposed… this guy is a bad photographer lol😛 if you shoot raw you can recover it… should be more about the shot then settings….

  72. Callum

    December 29, 2021 at 1:18 pm

    If something is underexposed, can’t that be fixed in Photoshop? Like, why throw away a shot with good content if it can fixed, right?

  73. Phil Edwards

    December 29, 2021 at 2:59 pm

    this is pretty silly

  74. Shirtless Killua

    December 29, 2021 at 3:00 pm

    He looks like James Cameron.

  75. RSpudieD

    December 29, 2021 at 6:57 pm

    That’s really interesting and not at all what I expected him to pick. I like how much thought and explanation each decision has.

  76. نورa

    December 29, 2021 at 7:31 pm

    Wow actually that’s so fantastic I will try on my cat🙂

  77. Quinn Kirby

    December 30, 2021 at 12:29 am

    LETS GO, CULLING!!!

  78. Ronny Mesias

    December 30, 2021 at 1:30 am

    Now I don’t feel bad for taking a lot of under/over exposed pics lmaoo

  79. Ricardo Yan

    December 30, 2021 at 3:18 am

    Gut instinct!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I can relate to that!!

  80. Midnight Blooming

    December 30, 2021 at 4:22 am

    me choosing a selfie to post:

  81. Anna P

    December 30, 2021 at 6:08 am

    I love the overall minimalist feel in the final photo and appreciate the subtle details in the light pouring in through the windows. Great choice and great video!

  82. A - cat

    December 30, 2021 at 7:21 am

    oooo great video!! please do some more edit type videos with say landscape or street/portraits 🙏

  83. Tsen Ee Lin

    December 30, 2021 at 7:23 am

    Why was this so exciting aaaAA I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!! so cool hearing his thought process behind everything (I can be such a hoarder when it comes to selecting photos HAHAH so this was really insightful!)

  84. Rotator72

    December 30, 2021 at 9:06 am

    At the moment in which the last image showed up on the wall with other 6-7 images i knew that it will be the keeper nice one.

  85. Colette

    December 30, 2021 at 9:14 am

    My man have you never used the dark room, lightroom, or photshop? Exposure issues can be fixed quite easily. I start with photos that have bad composition, are out of focus, or have motion blur.

    • Nude Nut

      December 30, 2021 at 10:40 am

      Are you an idiot? Were you in such a rush to make it all about you and your noise that you didn’t read any comments at all? Jesus… it’s in the fking title.
      For the record, no you’re not the only one, but you are the straw.

    • Colette

      December 30, 2021 at 10:45 am

      @Nude Nut Yes I read that the top comment is about exposure. Because it was already commented on am I now not allowed to express my opinions?

  86. Tim Z

    December 30, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    “I don’t like the look on it’s face. It looks evil.” — That’s called a cat.

  87. kondziovsky

    December 30, 2021 at 5:46 pm

    01:42 – wtf, both of them are overexposed

  88. LimitedWard

    December 30, 2021 at 7:40 pm

    This was really enlightening! I think he made the right choice in the end. It still tells plenty of story, just not the one we were primed for.

  89. MKN

    December 30, 2021 at 11:54 pm

    Hasn’t he heard of Lightroom?

  90. Nina Fuentes

    December 31, 2021 at 12:19 am

    over exposed.

  91. Samuel Alexander

    December 31, 2021 at 4:38 am

    me: that’s lookin purrfec…
    dude: under under and under, bye bye.
    me:

  92. Kat Y

    December 31, 2021 at 5:14 am

    this was great

  93. Vassilis Stergioudis

    December 31, 2021 at 8:37 am

    I’m impressed and confused by his method. He rejects images which has “bad” criteria and stays with the one or two which do not have something “bad” on them. For me this method is 50% right. You can also look for “good” criteria and keep some images because of these. I’m not saying that this is a bad approach, but you can never, but never, get out of the box. What if one photo shows part of the cat but it’s eyes are astonishing? What if the pose is “wrong” because the cat has just jumped and is photographed upside-down because it tries to catch a butterfly? What if…? This method rejects all of these images because you rely on these “bad” criteria. I would place “good” criteria and keep some of these discarded photos.

    • Tastaturensohn

      January 2, 2022 at 12:23 am

      I feel like this technique is only really applicable in situations where you can choose only one picture which is often the case in magazine. The title also says he’s looking for the best picture of the shoot.

  94. Gaming Cinematics

    December 31, 2021 at 10:38 am

    More explanation would be beneficial for the majority of those who don’t understand why he through a particular image away, seems like a weird editing take to condense this whole video down to ‘over exposed, over exposed, over exposed…’

  95. Jake Weber

    December 31, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    Ahhh, liked the #2 better, but as he said… it is subjective! Cool video, Steve is knowledgeable and entertaining.

  96. Aaron Greig

    December 31, 2021 at 5:19 pm

    I don’t get all of the ‘over exposed and under exposed’ drama, you can fix most of those in Lightroom😅

  97. Okephief Robinson

    December 31, 2021 at 10:34 pm

    It would be cool to see a pro photographer play Pokémon snap

  98. Kusuma Wijaya

    January 1, 2022 at 12:04 am

    Wowo, this session gave me meal for midn

  99. Asif Irfan

    January 1, 2022 at 11:47 am

    Thank you
    President Biden for the tutorial

  100. OOF gamer

    January 1, 2022 at 11:56 am

    ONNI CHAN WATASHI COMMINGVDESKA

  101. Ziip47

    January 1, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    What… is this😂

  102. jezelf

    January 1, 2022 at 1:39 pm

    Composition is first criteria for my eliminations. Then capturing the moment that was a chance or rare event if the exposure could be improved in post. It then becomes subjective of course; I would have tried to shoot a back view of the cat looking out the window at the city like he’s trapped or its his domain – both final images are great but for me, his final one has distracting leaning vertical lines on the right ( my ocd would want them more vertically straight ) and the cat is lost in the white environment, but I do love the asymmetry. The city backdrop would be my choice…but would have to ‘content aware’ fill to remove the reflection of the light…or rather look out for it in the view finder and move it for another shot. But I’m just another armchair critic – each to their own, its what makes everyone’s artistic expressions valid. Great video and I learnt some things.

  103. Joshua Lane

    January 1, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    It’s so much simpler for me. If I take 112 photos, 105 of them are absolutely worthless. The other seven are usually varying degrees mediocre, and I just choose the least embarrassing one. If all else feels, I leave the whole pile on a hard drive and never look at them again.

  104. Vangellis

    January 1, 2022 at 11:34 pm

    This content is golden. Too many times I go through photography albums and find loads of identical shots

  105. A.C. Arsyady

    January 2, 2022 at 1:15 am

    I thought the first filter would be the focus. It tells the story more than other elements and it can’t (or at least is hard to) be fixed

  106. Fun Pathik

    January 2, 2022 at 7:28 am

    Thanks wired.

  107. Ratul Ahmed

    January 2, 2022 at 8:59 am

    Talking about buildings on background through the whole video and then select the photo with no architecture visible on the background. Whats the point?

  108. Will Solis

    January 2, 2022 at 11:42 am

    Art is so subjective. To me the final two are companion pieces that each tell a different point of the story. So I prefer the runner up for story but the main one for style.

  109. Your Quirk

    January 2, 2022 at 1:13 pm

    This was actually, actually a really good lesson!

  110. Wilson Newman

    January 2, 2022 at 2:48 pm

    This was kind of odd.

    When you have the chance to create your own lighting, which they were doing, you have control over: (1) balancing foreground to background to whatever degree you desire, and (2) separation of subject and background however you like.

    Not much explanation for exposures (which are easily fixed anyway) to be all over the place or for a final image with so little separation for the subject.

    • Chris D'Agorne

      January 3, 2022 at 9:03 pm

      Totally agree – perhaps it’s because he’s not used to working in a studio. And I’ve found certain photographers tends to be a bit old skool in avoiding editing software – maybe he’s one of them. I don’t think this is very useful advice for digital photography, though, given that it’s so easy to fix exposure. Saying that, his photos were great, and I did find the final choice was an interesting composition.

    • Chris D'Agorne

      January 3, 2022 at 9:05 pm

      Honestly, I was surprised he only had 124 photos out of a professional shoot. That’s about 15 minutes of shooting?

  111. skiing crocodile

    January 2, 2022 at 3:00 pm

    I’ve been in this situation many many times! It’s interesting to see how an actual professional deals with the issue.
    One thing’s for sure, analog photography makes this a lot easier on me!! 🤣

  112. Rui Coelho

    January 2, 2022 at 3:04 pm

    Don’t get me wrong, I loved the video and the process. But, isn’t it up to the NatGeo editors, to choose what gets published? Honest question.

  113. Natsukashii Ohayo

    January 2, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    Catto! 0:59 I love the last picture that he took down more than his final choice. The hard edges of the cityscapes against the softness of the flufffloofy cat and the rounded cushion it is sitting on. The lighting of that second to last picture is great too.

  114. fafmotorsport

    January 2, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    Think about how YOU would select an image OUT OF CAMERA if you were not allowed to edit it after 😉 That has been the thought process shown by this man; not the thought process of ‘which photo shows the most potential that I can edit later.’
    Why? Well Remember, he is not young: he would have been learning his craft 50+ years back when—as he says—cropping wasn’t really possible; and certainly the digital tools available today to help the under/over exposed areas, magic wands etc etc we’re not available to him!

  115. Nikola

    January 2, 2022 at 4:20 pm

    The exposure on most of those photos could easily have been corrected.

  116. Fernando Vela

    January 2, 2022 at 4:41 pm

    An amazing masterclass 👊🏻😎

  117. Mayanstudios

    January 2, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    Love the whole concept of this video! Great information in a silly setting, and who doesn’t love cats!

  118. Phyo Wonna

    January 3, 2022 at 3:21 am

    I just had a photo shoot lecture😄thanks

  119. Kelsey Molon

    January 3, 2022 at 4:13 am

    How do I become a photographer of nat geo😅👋🏻

  120. Shubham Khare

    January 3, 2022 at 5:46 am

    It’s 112, not 124!

  121. Michael Seneschal

    January 3, 2022 at 5:51 am

    As a photographer I find this super informative and fascinating.

  122. Bryce Delany

    January 3, 2022 at 6:11 am

    I love this video. It perfectly demonstrates that what makes a good photographer isn’t just what they can do with a camera but how they analyse their images after the shoot and being able to identify the good images.

  123. Clueless Youtuber Goes Out

    January 3, 2022 at 7:01 am

    Interesting perspective to see which one is a keeper out of all the shots taken. Never thought of it that way, but I suppose since I mostly shoot in digital cameras, a lot of the flaws on exposure and framing can be fixed with digital editing and cropping somehow.

  124. Breeze

    January 3, 2022 at 10:46 am

    Always shoot in RAW

  125. fishhisy

    January 3, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    1.5x speed makes this sufferable

  126. Chandler Lemmon

    January 3, 2022 at 6:40 pm

    Kook

  127. Weird Tyler

    January 3, 2022 at 7:24 pm

    1, 2, 3, 4, 5…Bye bye

    I shall be using this😂

  128. Vera Yve

    January 3, 2022 at 10:47 pm

    Interesting to see how he select the photos! Thank you

  129. Carlos Vega

    January 4, 2022 at 12:13 am

    This guy ever heard of editing?

  130. Sarcastic Squirrel

    January 4, 2022 at 12:36 am

    YOOO HE CHOSE MINE

  131. Jogie Glen Mait

    January 4, 2022 at 1:13 am

    It’s Steve Winter, baby! Nice!

  132. Aniket Saurav

    January 4, 2022 at 7:52 am

    If I post every picture he rejected I will get more than a million followers in instagram.

  133. Sergio Alegre Vicente

    January 4, 2022 at 9:25 am

    for me is the hardest thing in photography. Being a photographer for 13 years and is where i struggle the most.

  134. Bubbles

    January 4, 2022 at 1:31 pm

    A lot of comments seem to mention keeping over exposed/under exposed photos. While yes, these can be fixed in post, the wildlife photography (and sometimes even other professional photography competitions) have a no-editing policy, making it about the photographer in the field rather than the editor and post processing. That is why his first round is eliminating technically faulty pictures.

    • THE GOOD CONTENT

      January 4, 2022 at 3:51 pm

      The photographer can be the editor as well. It’s only a purist perspective. Putting restrictions when they are not necessary. To some this is commendable to others is just dumb. Both are right.

  135. Bao Han Huynh Pham

    January 4, 2022 at 1:32 pm

    Evil little kitty going in for a kill🤣🤣🤣

  136. Timothy Waddell

    January 4, 2022 at 2:09 pm

    You know he’s old school because he’s throwing out barely under exposed shots with good framing. This isn’t film. If it’s only slightly under exposed, correct it in post if the framing is great.

  137. OMtNI

    January 4, 2022 at 2:36 pm

    I agree, it has a wonderful graphical feel and movement.

  138. Vaso Gelashvili

    January 4, 2022 at 3:04 pm

    Disagreed

  139. Nora Batungbacal

    January 4, 2022 at 3:40 pm

    Didn’t watch the whole thing and looked at the photo at the last part.
    So…. he chose a fat white cat sitting on white background.
    It makes one wonder if photopgraphy is overthought.

  140. Its Abhi Vlog

    January 4, 2022 at 5:22 pm

    Adobe Lightroom ?
    Me : why he’s just not using Adobe Lightroom?

  141. Vin L

    January 4, 2022 at 6:07 pm

    *I think the finalist is the best.* 👍🏻

  142. BAli

    January 4, 2022 at 6:14 pm

    He talked like a pro for 12 minutes and at the end chose the image that is kind of empty. I liked the image number 2 (which he threw at the end) and the image where he compares the initials to.

    • San

      January 7, 2022 at 11:36 am

      the one he threw at the end has many elements, the buildings are distracting. the one he picked will most likely photographers’ choice. It is minimalistic and intriguing. I would have picked that too if I were to chose.

  143. RAiNYT

    January 4, 2022 at 9:11 pm

    Sumarry: Under Exposed And Over Exposed

  144. C.J. Wilkerson

    January 4, 2022 at 11:38 pm

    Yeah but also imagine if these were done on film, look at all that would be wasted. Imagine what a good light reading of the scene and thoughtful taking of frames would do! I know in faster paced and in-the-moment situations it is easier said than done. Just food for thought.

  145. caos one

    January 5, 2022 at 2:47 am

    Those are hardly underexposed beyond saving them. If you shoot in raw that is. Overexposure obviously is more of a valid concern as there actually is lost information with that.

  146. caos one

    January 5, 2022 at 2:51 am

    No cropping with film?!
    Like, how easy is it to just blow up the projection size a bit more to have it be bigger than the paper you use to then just be able to, well, crop and exclude anything you don’t like?!

  147. G June36

    January 5, 2022 at 7:32 am

    7:52 my favorite

  148. Zacharion Tab

    January 5, 2022 at 10:47 am

    That’s how I kinda cull my RAW photos at Lightroom.

  149. Peter Schings

    January 5, 2022 at 10:58 am

    with a cat*

  150. Sahil Khatri

    January 5, 2022 at 2:34 pm

    Man removing under and over exposed images 👍🏻

  151. Osmond Wong

    January 5, 2022 at 2:54 pm

    If he filters this way why take so many wrong photos at the first place? The cut out body ones should not be taken at the first place

  152. Olivio Sarikas

    January 5, 2022 at 6:25 pm

    Very interesting to watch this. Also great to see that even achieved Pros make a lot of mistakes while shooting.

  153. Roupouw

    January 5, 2022 at 6:57 pm

    but it’s crooked.

  154. Christian Herzog

    January 5, 2022 at 9:46 pm

    So good! Keep it coming 🙌🙏🇧🇷

  155. The KEMIK

    January 6, 2022 at 12:52 am

    Doesn’t everyone take 112 photos and the print them all out to pick there final one?

  156. S Moktan Media

    January 6, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    I aim to take only ONE pic, sometimes 2 or 3, and rarely 10 😀

  157. LowWeasel

    January 6, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    yay, piecked the same 😎

  158. Rupin Chheda

    January 7, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    Did he take one good photo and ended up making 111 poor ones, to tell a story?

  159. Fernando Rueda

    January 7, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    ” everyday it’s school day “

  160. Juan Lopez

    January 7, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    Gracias!

  161. Night Coder

    January 7, 2022 at 9:32 pm

    I suppose none of these photos were edited. Almost every photographer I know edit their photos these days, some even go as far as replacing the sky, removing electrical cables and various objects in the scene besides doing dodge and burn and other basic editing functions.

  162. Murgoi Marius

    January 7, 2022 at 11:30 pm

    He is so good that one of his last two photos had the flash reflection in the window. LOL

  163. Lars Andreas S.

    January 8, 2022 at 12:03 am

    During the pandemic I must have watched hundreds of hours of photography-oriented you tube videos (gear, shooting technique, etc.) as I sought to improve my photographs, and this was singularly the standout most interesting. Thank you.

  164. Stephen Dolter

    January 8, 2022 at 1:02 am

    Steve: These are the finalists.

    Me: One is crooked; the other isn’t centered between the window frames.

  165. Gaurav Passi

    January 8, 2022 at 5:36 am

    Amazing. The master is always a student. Everyday.

  166. U.S. Grant

    January 8, 2022 at 6:05 am

    There is nothing easier to fix than exposure, in fact +/-1 stop is trivial.

  167. Bak Steen

    January 8, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    A photographer full of himself is an awful human being. Americans in general too. Add the two elements and you have this salad toss of total rubbish.

    • j

      January 17, 2022 at 3:01 pm

      so all critics are awful human beings?

  168. R. D. Collins

    January 8, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    I like both photos, but to choose I’d need to do some cropping of both photos to eliminate the unnecessary and distracting elements.

  169. Michael Pitsur

    January 8, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    on final I would pick one on chair with buildings on behind ))

  170. MarvinPhotoG

    January 8, 2022 at 8:45 pm

    This is super great info.

  171. Vikram

    January 9, 2022 at 9:42 am

    Wow! Editing is one of the most important parts of creating an image and perhaps the toughest.

  172. Glowpapier

    January 9, 2022 at 11:25 am

    In analog photography there is no cropping? Has he ever been to a darkroom?

  173. Gert Lapoehn

    January 9, 2022 at 11:58 am

    👍🍾

  174. Buddi

    January 9, 2022 at 12:27 pm

    “every day is a school day”

  175. Boltmann

    January 9, 2022 at 10:42 pm

    I’ve been wondering what the kitty thinks is happening…

  176. blotchi lim

    January 10, 2022 at 3:11 pm

    I have so much more respect for wildlife photopragphers after watching his thought process 🙏🏼
    And to think that he started on analog camera, i’m so awed!

  177. Chris Peden

    January 10, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    Culling is one of the things I struggle with because I like so much. It’s interesting to see his process and explanation. In the end he did not pick what I would have though.

  178. Hots on Wheels

    January 10, 2022 at 9:12 pm

    Dear Nat Geo, I don’t know if you know, but for a 10$ monthly subscription to adobe photoshop and light room, this cat can fly a helicopter around this building on a Photo 🌪

    I just try say that most of the images could be corrected in post-production 😊😆

  179. Mark E

    January 11, 2022 at 1:32 am

    Very interesting. I picked the same image BTW. 😉👍

  180. almazonly

    January 11, 2022 at 4:56 am

    Would he delete the other 119 RAW files?

  181. Victor Peters

    January 11, 2022 at 9:02 am

    Maybe it has to do with video compression or the brightness of the video, but it seemed to me the the photographer got rid of some over or under exposed photos in the first ’round’, but later in the culling process still had images on the board that could just as well be considered over or under exposed as the ones he got rid of in the first ’round’.

  182. Valentine

    January 12, 2022 at 10:40 pm

    Awesome video 📹

  183. Tomas Ramoska

    January 13, 2022 at 1:58 pm

    He took a lot of 💩 images to get one average shot 😳 😂

  184. Spectral break

    January 13, 2022 at 2:28 pm

    he was a master on his own field truly a professional

  185. Abcd

    January 14, 2022 at 1:30 pm

    You know why you didn’t make it to college? Coz you were UNDER EXPOSED!

  186. Anil Kumar Singh

    January 14, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    Watch it on 1.25x speed. 🙂

  187. Piexus

    January 15, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    Thank you Mr. Winter
    super intresting!

  188. blue balloon202

    January 18, 2022 at 8:26 pm

    “You don’t want to look down on an animal unless you’re admiring it’s paws.”

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