Quick and Simple Post-Processing (Editing Your Images)

Post-processing for some can be just as enjoyable as being out in the field capturing images and for others, it can be an arduous task that they despise more than anything. When it comes to my personal feelings on post-processing though, I’d say I’m right down the middle.

My main issue with post-processing is that after years of working in an office, I now can’t stand being indoors, sat staring at a computer screen. I’d much rather be outside with my camera than cooped up in my office. For that reason I tend to do most of my post-processing in the winter.

In spite of the above and in my opinion, it’s a necessary part of photography. Once I get myself into a rhythm I actually find it quite enjoyable. It’s amazing to see what you’re capable of achieving through editing and with the introducing of AI, I’d say it’s a hot topic right now.

So in this blogpost I thought I’d run through my editing workflow, starting with how I edited the following image.

You could say that editing is arguably just as much of an art as photography itself and although my own editing style is fairly simple, I’ve seen people produce incredible work through what they’re able to achieve in post-processing. Removing backgrounds, adding skies, brushing in foreground, changing the colour of the birds feathers etc, etc. It’s almost limitless!

I believe that there aren’t really any right or wrongs in this game and that’s in part what made photography so appealing to me. I always maintain that if you’re enjoying something and it’s causing no harm to others then you should continue to do what you enjoy.

If like me you consider this to be an art, and the very definition of art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form” then whether the final piece of work appeals to the masses or not, post-processing can be an opportune way of expressing yourself.

I’ve personally always tried to keep my editing workflow to a bare minimum. This is not only because as mentioned above, I hate being at the computer, but also because I’ve always been drawn to documenting what I see when I’m out in the field. For that reason I like my final image to be as close to what I was seeing as possible. That said, when you’re working with a RAW file, there’s always going to be a certain amount of work involved to get it there.

The below image is the RAW file of a Puffin captured on Skomer Island last summer. It was taken at sunrise and there was a warm glow at the time, so one of the first things I wanted to do was bring that back…

RAW file before any editing has taken place

Cropping

Once I’ve loaded my RAW file into Lightroom, the very first thing I look at is composition and whether or not I want to crop the image. In an ideal world you would get your composition right in the field but sadly, for the following reasons, that isn’t always possible:

You didn’t have time - This is wildlife photography and things can happen fast. I’ve been caught off guard so many times and sometimes it’s all I can do to focus and expose correctly.

You couldn’t get any closer - We’ve all been here. This isn’t me saying that bigger is always better, or that you need to get as close as possible but sometimes you’re just a little bit too far away from your subject.

To remove unwanted distractions - Perhaps due to the above reasons you're left with unwanted, distracting elements in your image. We will cover this in more detail later on.

Your image isn’t straight - It’s a good idea to check that your image appears straight. I see a lot of images where the horizon isn’t straight. I’ve done this myself so many times. If you didn’t get this right in camera you can simply rectify it in the editing process, however your image will become cropped based on how off straight it was.

In summary, I would look at whether or not the image can be improved by cropping and if the answer is yes, then that’s the first step of my editing process. Just be careful not to crop too much as this could result in losing too much resolution and furthermore give the impression that the subject has no space to breathe. This image didn’t need any cropping so I went straight to the next stage…

Adjustment Sliders

After cropping I tend to make some basic adjustments to the image by using the adjustment sliders. This mostly consists of contrast, white balance, temperature and maybe the shadows. In this image you can see how far I’ve moved each of those sliders to achieve the desire effect.

You can see that I have adjusted the contrast and blacks to make the image pop a little more. I have also increased the overall temperature of the image to warm it up. This image was taken at sunrise and I wanted to bring the warm tones back into the image, as that is what I was seeing at the time. For overall adjustments, this is all I felt the image needed.

When it comes to adjustment sliders, my advice on this is to play around until you find what you like. I suggest that you start by moving the individual sliders up in small increments. You can do this by hovering over the nominated slider and pressing either the left or right arrow.

I know people who take the sliders to the extreme and slowly work back too, so this may be a method that you prefer. It’s about finding what works for you.

Selection Masking

The next step in my editing process is to make any changes to individual elements in the image. You can do this by using the selection masks. In Lightroom you now have the AI function that can select either the subject, an object, the background or the sky. You can also use a size adjustable brush to select things that the AI can’t.

For this image I started by using the “select subject” mask and then lifted some of the shadows. I also brought down the highlights on the Puffin’s chest. This enabled me to bring out more detail in the feathers. I also added a small amount of sharpening and texture to the Puffin.

I then used the “brush” mask and brushed around the brighter areas of the birds face. This helped give the exposure of the feathers balance.

For the final stage of masking I made another “brush” selection around the Puffin’s eye. This is something I do quite often with my wildlife images. It’s always a very subtle change but it does exaggerate any catchlight in the subject’s eye.

At this point I would look at whether or not I want to remove any distracting elements from the image and I do this in Adobe Photoshop. This image however didn’t require any removal tools, so I will cover that in a future blogpost.

As you can see from the Before and After, the changes are fairly discreet, with the biggest change being the increase in temperature/warmth. Ultimately it all comes down to personal preference and what you like.

The idea of today’s blogpost was to give you an understanding of the basics of editing and my personal workflow. Nine times out of ten this is how simple my workflow is. I will cover much more on post-processing in the near future, including the difference between RAW and JPEG, however for the purpose of today’s post I wanted to keep it simple.

If you have any questions regarding post-processing, or what you’d like me to cover in future blogposts, you can contact me by email at richard@richardcampionphotography.com. I also offer editing workshops on my website.

Thanks for reading,

Rich