Editing
This was the part of photography I didn’t particularly enjoy at the beginning. However with practice and learning my own style I now really enjoy the editing process. There is something really satisfying seeing the before and after!
So Jpeg or Raw?
I’m not going to get into all the technical reasons what format you should shoot. There will be plenty or more experienced photographers out there with technical articles explaining the reasons and benefits of what format you should shoot.
I like to shoot in Raw for the main benefit of having more data and a higher level of image detail so I can pull out those details when editing my photos. Being honest when I first started I’m not sure how much detail I brought out in my images but now with practice and experience I feel I have the right balance.
The important thing I have learnt about editing is there is no right & wrong to how you want your image to look. Everyone has a different style and look about their images and that’s what makes it art!
Software
This is obviously a personal preference too and it will be influenced by your budget. I personally use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop which costs around £19 a month (at the time this blog was published.) Other available popular paid editing programmes are Affinity photo & Luminar Neo. Before making a decision see if you can get a free trial to see which one you prefer. Also remember Youtube is your friend when learning these programs!
If you have a tight budget then there are some really good free editing programmes like Photopea and Photoshop Express. Disclaimer, I have not used any of these free programmes but I have various photography friends that do, which all say good things about them.
The reason I favour Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop is that I like the software, the layout, the tools you get to use and the versatility of being able to move between one programme to another without having to save, download then upload. Adobe are always improving there software and the AI tools available are fantastic.
My Workflow
I thought it might be useful to show my workflow in Adobe Lightroom to help support any novices out there. Plus you never know even the more experienced editor may pick up some tips.
Remember this is just how I prefer to edit my photos, I’m not suggesting this is the right way nor am I suggesting that my style is the best but its how I like my images to look.
Adobe Lightroom
After importing my photos into Lightroom I’ll switch to the develop tab and get to work ediitng my photo.
Firstly I would scroll down to the Lens correction menu and make sure the Remove Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Corrections is selected.
If its not I would tick both boxes and check the correct lens is selected.
I would then jump back to the top menu and select the Crop Tool to crop the image.
From there I would move to the Basic section and adjust my White balance, Exposure, Highlights & Shadows. Depending on the image I may also tweak the Clarity and Vibrance.
Tone Curve is my next step. I like my images to have a flat look so I would raise the blacks by lifting the shadows in the Tone Curve. Then I would slightly lift the highlights and adjust the midtones accordingly.
I personally don’t like saturated Greens in my images so I would use the Colour Mixer to desaturate the Greens and sometimes the Oranges depending on the image.
Other adjustments
The above are the core adjustments I make to the majority of my images. Depending on the image I may also use the Sharpness Tool to sharpen the image and then add a vignette. Lastly I would use the Masking Tool to add a Linear gradient or Radial gradient.
PhotoShop
Now I’m certainly no expert when it comes to Photoshop but I do use it to remove unwanted parts to my images. This could be anything from a distracting object like a small bin or rubbish in the scene to a person or even a large bush. Now there are multiple ways you can do this but the new AI generative fill is excellent. You can simply outline an object and Photoshop will do the rest.
Conclusion
Don’t be put off by the editing process, you won’t be an expert overnight it takes time so just keep practising. Remember YouTube is your friend, you will find hundreds of excellent beginner tutorials on most of the common editing programs.
