Every photographer knows editing their own work can sometimes be a challenge. The roles of the photographer and the editor are distinct, and trying to wear both hats at the same time can lead to conflicting impulses.

“You have to think as someone who hasn’t seen the story yet,” said Marco Postigo Storel, workshop participant. “That’s the hardest thing, because you’re already attached to the photoshoot.”

Bill Marr, faculty for Missouri Photo Workshop on Team Eppridge, has a long career in photography and editing. He served as creative director of National Geographic magazine and The Nature Conservancy’s director of photography. He was the College Photographer of the Year in 1976 and worked as a staff photographer at the Columbia Daily Tribune until he morphed into a picture editing and designer role.

Marr has some advice for photographers editing their own work. The first challenge might be the emotions a photographer attaches to their images.

“When you say you have a hard time picking your best pictures, is it because you love them all, or you hate them all?” Marr asked. Both can lead to pitfalls.

Jessi Dodge, MPW Vortex Lead and photojournalist at the Buffalo (Wyoming) Bulletin, said she struggles with separating from her role as a photographer and looking as an editor.

“My bias means I think the photos that were the hardest to take will tell the story the best,” Dodge said.

Marr cautioned against this. “If you went through a lot of work or a big adventure, took days to get a couple of pictures, you're gonna really try to like them,” he said. “There's a danger in that, because the photograph doesn't really talk about what it took to get.”

The opposite problem comes from missing strong images.

“On the other hand, if you're not feeling confident about your photography, you may not like anything, even though you've got some really good pictures,” Marr said.

This week at the workshop, Dodge and Jennifer Mosbrucker, freelance photo editor and Rangefinder editor, went through Dodge’s work. Dodge said Mosbrucker pulled her portfolio apart, finding strong images on Dodge’s drive that she should include in her website.

“The best thing is to find a friend, a mentor, someone that you can bounce stuff off of, just to get a reality check,” Marr said. He calls this a readership survey. A second person should be able to look at the image and understand it, without words or captions. In many cases, the photo should speak for itself.

“At the Geographic, it was all about, we're gonna print 6 million copies of this thing, back in the day,” Marr said. “We're gonna make sure that 6 million people understand this picture.”

“Photography is subjective,” Marr went on to say. “Photography is very personal. Everybody's gonna react to pictures differently. As much as you may love a picture, it may not make sense to somebody else.”

Hunter Pendleton, workshop graduate assistant, echoed these thoughts.

“There’s a degree of closeness I get with my work where I feel over-attached to my images,” he said. “Sometimes you have to kill your darlings.”

This is not to say there is no room in your portfolio or on assignment for complex or subjective photos. Marr lists some of his favorite photographers who stand out for their layered and artful work: John Stanmeyer, Alex Webb, David Guttenfelder.

He encourages photographers to take the pictures they were hired for, but also to take chances with creative vision.

“You have to have a good relationship with your picture editor,” Marr said. If you have a different type of picture, your editor will likely listen to you. Whether or not it goes on to publication is a different story, but the conversation is worth having, he said.

Marr emphasized the importance of sequencing. Whenever you have three or more photos on the screen, you should put them in an order that makes sense, he said. Sequencing can help with editing as well: if an excellent image doesn’t fit the narrative, it can be a sign to remove it from the group.

Grouping photos is important as well.

“What we did, when we're doing a larger story, was to organize the photos into what Sarah (Leen) likes to call buckets,” Marr said.

One bucket might be for landscapes, another for portraits, and still more for working photos or process photos, and so on. When you’re curating ten images for a story, five of those can’t be landscapes. Grouping the photos into categories will help you compare and select the best from each bucket.

Marr’s final piece of advice is to put your work out into the world.

“Publish often,” he said. “Everybody with an Instagram account is a publisher. You've got to brand and develop bodies of work so that people can identify you.”