Tyson Crosbie’s Soft Edit
Building a community through education and transparency.
Soft Edit: A series of images from one photo session (usually 15) presented in order on flickr. Images are open for comment so an audience may comment and influence the final selection of the client.
Soft Edit
A soft edit is usually the first step I take after a photo session. I like to wait a couple hours and return to the whole session and look over the images one by one. Being very particular about what is in and what is out. For me I usually eliminate about half the images on the first pass, so typical session with 60 to 100 images is now around 30. Since I prefer to converse with my subjects as I am photographing a lot of this is just what I call “closed eyes and open mouths.” If you have been following my experiment on flickr you may have noticed I like to include one of these bloopers in the set, partly for fun and partly to help the audience to understand the process of photographing a single subject.
Exceeding expectations:
I didn’t expect the response to soft edits that I’ve received, seriously my mom doesn’t even read my blog. So to have a community build up around such a simple idea really excites me. I notice both parties starting to learn and grow together and yet it remains accessible to experts and beginners. Since I started to treat my business with authenticity and transparency I’ve only seen positive results, now I don’t think I could ever go back.
Final thoughts:
I am always looking for ways to improve the experience. Any questions or suggestions for improvement are welcome in the comments below.

FIRST! ;)
Google Alerts pinged me quick on this one (good news) – thanks for the blooper shot.
Like I mentioned when I first met you, I was in dire need of a good portrait and something that helped to show a part of me that I can’t portray by turning my 8mpx digicam around and taking my own shot. This is an important part in the personal branding path and I’m glad you’re around to help and get everybody realizing they need a well taken portrait as an integral part of their brand.
July 10th, 2008 at 5:09 pmThrough asking on Twitter, I found out about your photography services from Erica Lucci. I was so happy to connect with you as I never had a professional photo shoot done before. As Chuck stated, taking my own pic or having a friend take a pic is not the same when trying to brand yourself.
With online marketing and working globally, I found that potential clients like to see the person they may be doing business with or speaking to. You are an amazing artist and very in touch with how we need to brand ourselves online. Thank you for my awesome shots!
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 pmLike the color photos, with a gray background, with soft smile photo; blue dress was excellent for her color.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pmLike the color photos, with a gray background, with soft smile photo; blue dress was excellent for her color.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:07 pm