One of my favorite ways to work on printing is to make a quick draft image and then hang that on the wall. Stand back and think about all the things that you want to change in the image. Then grab a sharpie pen and draw on the print all the things that you want to do to make it better. Increase satiation in an area. Decrease overall exposure. It doesn’t matter. You just want to write it down. Also guess at how much of an adjustment you will want to make, plus 20 in clarity or -1.5 exposure. When you learn to accurately assess the print, you will be more successful editing in the future because you are teaching yourself to see how to translate the image in your mind, to the screen and finally to the print. I did a quick 3 1/2 minute video to show you my approach. Hope it helps.
The power of the photographic interview
One of my favorite exercises I use to teach photography and learn about my own work is called the interview project. This process involves you doing enough research about a photographer you are inspired by or want to learn from and then create a set of 10 to 20 interview questions that you would want to use to interview them. In some cases, you might be lucky and be able to use those questions to interview the photographer. Still, sometimes they might no longer be alive. Either way, part of the process is to answer those questions as if you were the photographer. This will help you get some insights into how you might approach the work. You then use those same questions, slightly modified to fit your work, and then interview yourself.
The podcast this week walks you through the process and so possible insights you might be able to get with a simple little exercise that gives you big rewards in understanding your own process and work.