Editing tips

[pauxg47181]

I am new to photography in general (just started a week ago) and was wondering if any experienced photographers could give some good pointers on post-processing. Is there a certain mental checklist you go through to ensure your photos look their best?

I ask because 1- I obviously want to improve
2- I feel like there is a lot that can be done with a photo, but have trouble determining what should be done.

I have been using Lightroom for processing so far.

 

[480sparky]

Only do what the image needs. It's usually not a cookie-cutter process.

Most (not all!) images can be improved by setting the black & white points, putting a slight S into the curve, increasing the saturation a bit and adding a bit of sharpening. Again.... not all images will benefit from this.

After that, it's really dependent on the image itself as to what other steps to take.

 

[ronlane]

Only do what the image needs. It's usually not a cookie-cutter process.

Most (not all!) images can be improved by setting the black & white points, putting a slight S into the curve, increasing the saturation a bit and adding a bit of sharpening. Again.... not all images will benefit from this.

After that, it's really dependent on the image itself as to what other steps to take.

This pretty much sums it up. It may help to search youtube for adobe's channel, they have good tutorials on editing using LR.

You can also look for adorama's channel.

Another good resource is kelbyone.com (subscription based)

 

[Derrel]

I am new to photography in general (just started a week ago) and was wondering if any experienced photographers could give some good pointers on post-processing. Is there a certain mental checklist you go through to ensure your photos look their best?

I ask because 1- I obviously want to improve
2- I feel like there is a lot that can be done with a photo, but have trouble determining what should be done.

I have been using Lightroom for processing so far.

1-get rid of the junk, and the also-rans. There is A-list, B-list, and C-junk. Do NOT WASTE EFFORT on the C-list stuff...eliminate the C-list stuff before you start the editing process. Keping C-list junk around is distracting, and makes a job wayyyyy bigger than it ought to be.

2-Think about what is needed. Global white balance synchronizing on groups of images is helpful many times.

3-Minor exposure adjustment, curves adjustment, minor saturation boost, perhaps. Those are the "main things" that many,many images will benefit from. As Spark mentioned--the black point adjustment is very important, especially if images are going to be sent someplace to be made into prints!!!!!

4-A good deal of easy, efficient editing comes from figuring out the RIGHT white balance and the RIGHT exposure in the field, when the photos are being shot. if you figure out the PROPER exposure, and stick to that, you will have consistent images, which will easily accept a pasted-on WB adjust, curves adjust, and so on. If the shots yo-yo on exposure all the time, it becomes more challenging to edit a lot of images.

5- If there is ONE, SINGLE thing that can improve an image, it would be using the curves tool. With it you can make a huge number of corrections, in one, single move. Learn how to use it.

 

[KmH]

In Camera Raw/Lightroom there are 3 controls that are known as the Presence controls - Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation.

The Clarity slider adds or subtracts mid-tone contrast. I most often add Clarity to my photos. Increasing mid-tone contrast can also be accomplished using the Curves adjustment.

While the Saturation slider provides a linear adjustment to color saturation, the Vibrance slider is a non-linear adjustment.
What that means that the Vibrance slider adds more saturation to colors that need more saturation than it does to colors that already have good saturation.
So the Vibrance slider gives a more subtle effect than the Saturation slider does.

If you don't already have it and you use LR 5, I highly recommend the book - The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

You can also download the LR 5 manual at - https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom.html
which can also be accessed by opening LR, pressing the keyboard F1 key, or by clicking on Help > Lightroom Help.

You might also want to visit - Products | Lightroom | Adobe TV

and - https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/learn/tutorials/lightroom.html#get-started

 

[The_Traveler]

What these others are telling you is correct but not the answer.
If you are new to photography, you need to learn how to see the shortcomings in your picture and then use the tools to correct them.
I wrote an article last year and I suggest you read that to begin to understand how to diagnose the issues.
Do a web search for 'getting to a final image' and somewhere on the first page you will see a link to my blog - LewLortonPhoto.com.- with that title.
(I can't seem to make this damn Ipad do a select and copy of the full url on my site.)

 

[pauxg47181]

Thank you to everyone that posted tips here. I value your input and will look into everything said. Traveler- I will definitely check out that article tonight!

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm back on an actual computer with a keyboard.

getting-to-a-final-image---some-words-for-a-new-photographer

all my photography articles

 

[Braineack]

I am new to photography in general (just started a week ago) and was wondering if any experienced photographers could give some good pointers on post-processing.

take better pictures.

 

[pauxg47181]

take better pictures.

Thanks for that gem of info!

 

[Braineack]

take better pictures.

Thanks for that gem of info!

I hope that was sincere; it's solid advice.

 

[Designer]

Since you are new to photography, I don't understand why you are asking about post-processing at this time. IMO if the photograph needs more than straightening and cropping, then it probably wasn't that great in the first place. For a beginner, I suggest straighten and crop before you show it to anybody. Then if something else is suggested, do that.

A beginning photographer first needs to see a picture, then take the picture (using his best skills at composition and exposure) and then take a hard critical look at the result(s) before you go out again. Get in the habit of being somewhat critical (dispassionately) of your own work. Learn from other photographer's work, and by having your own work critiqued.

Little by little you will know what needs fixing in your own photographs simply by being better educated as to what makes for a good photograph.

 

[The_Traveler]

 

[runnah]

To me there are two types of editing.

Fixing issues: cropping, straitening, cloning out unwanted elements, minor levels/curves/color adjustments.
Realizing an artistic vision: This is where you can go hog wild and there is really no road map.