Post-Processing
Editing has always been one of my favorite things about photography. I thoroughly enjoy the process of trying to attain a vision that I had in my mind when I first took the shot. It doesn’t always go according to plan, sometimes for better or worse. But it’s the learning for me that is the enjoyable part. Aesthetics change over time. I really enjoy bold and vibrant colors but find myself lately leaning toward more muted tones. I’ve started to learn about color grading and it really is fascinating how certain colors evoke very specific moods and emotions, and to be able to apply that to your photography is beautiful.
So I thought I’d share a few photographs and sort of walk through my mindset when editing them. A couple are quite dramatic and others more nuanced and subtle. It all boils down to what your objective is.
This is a recent photograph I did in Durham, NC. It was on a trail and was actually one of the last shots I took. I kind of thought that I was done for the day, but as I treaded along this pathway I noticed that the trees were perfectly framing the water as well as the reflective branches on the other side. Lighting was tough; it was very cloudy. It was also quite cold out. I remember when taking the photo that I wanted to express coolness in my final edit. I wanted you to get the sense that we are on the heels of winter, the air is biting, and the tress are dying. Basically, the complete opposite of the warmth shown in the original take.
For color grading, I focused on the highlights as they were displaying ‘warm’ in-camera. My white balance was all off due to tough lighting. I did some color corrections, added a linear gradient to the lower quarter of the photograph to bring down some of the exposure and draw your eye into the center frame, and brought out the blacks in the branches that were reflected in the water. I also isolated the sky in order to tone down the highlights and bring back some detail. In the end, I think it came out pretty good. I think that it accomplishes making you feel cold and isolated, so it’s a shot I can be proud of.
I love this shot of my brother and nephew. This is the kind of shot where you don’t want to do a lot of editing because it would take away from the feeling. Nothing is more gratifying than when you frame your shot exactly how you want and don’t need to do any cropping afterward. With children, everything is in the eyes. They’re incredibly expressive. All I really wanted to achieve with this shot is that expression, because it’s filled with so much wonder and confusion. My nephew is curious about my camera, he’s also wondering what I’m doing. My brother is attempting to show him something (I’m sure interesting…) but all my nephew wants to know is, “What is my crazy aunt doing?”
So in post-processing that is what I focused on - his eyes. I went in with a radial gradient to lighten them up and bring back some of those details. Some minor color adjustments to go with a more musty color palette, and a slight vignette to draw your eye in.
This was taken at the Greensboro Arboretum. Bees are tricky! I absolutely loved how this one was enjoying the flowers and completely immersed in bee business. The shot had such a soft quality to it that I wanted to keep because the balance of the delicate flowers against the gentleness of the bee translated quite well. In post-processing my objective was to show how you can take such a soft photograph and make it much bolder while still retaining its pastel-like quality. I bumped up the blacks for starters. I also increased the “dehaze” just a tad, because I didn’t want to completely do away with the haze since it was adding the soft elements that I intended to keep. Raising it just slightly seeks to cut away some of the unnecessary haze and draw your eye into the main subject: the bee. If I remember correctly, I left the saturation well enough alone and simply bumped up the vibrance. This is a massive distinction. Increasing your saturation will blow out your colors and make the photograph surreal. I have done this way too many times in the past and am a better photographer today because I learned from it. Keep your saturation where it’s at and simply raise your vibrance. That way you’re not altering the color; you’re simply making it pop. You can even lower your saturation into the negatives and boost your vibrance just a bit more. It will look very beautiful, but very natural. And that’s about it for this photo. A little bit of a clarity boost and I was pleased with the final result.
Lastly, a huge edit! This was taken at the Carolina Circus Festival. It was midday, but the sun had dropped behind some trees and was providing a nice lightbox effect. I wasn’t sure what my objective was when taking these photographs. And sometimes that happens, too. Sometimes I just want to shoot for the simple act of shooting. I tell myself to shoot now and figure it out later in post-processing. So I did. When I got it home I wanted to address the obvious things first. Lighting, color corrections, etc. Then came time to figure out the crop. The pesky, pain in my crop. I hate cropping and it takes me forever to figure out how a photograph should be. I will toil away for an hour trying to decide how I want it to go. I had to step away. When I came back to it I was none the wiser. Luckily for me, I have a very artistic wife. She came in to look at it and immediately said, “Flip it.” Flip it? Hmm, okay. She was right. She’s usually right.
This was a learning opportunity. When something doesn’t make sense to you in life, flip it. Look at it a different way, from all angles. This photograph became infinitely more interesting just by flipping it than had I left it in its original orientation. Because it’s odd. It makes you linger on it just a little bit longer going, “Hmm…”
For the rest, I brought out the highlights in her eyes so that they weren’t lost. It’s always about the eyes. I also did away with the trees that were creeping in behind her ankles because it took attention away from the main subject. It was distracting. I hate anything distracting, get rid of it.
I’m very happy with how this turned out and so was the dancer. She contacted me on social media and I happily sent her the photograph for posting purposes. Her entire dance studio ended up following me and showing me some support which I’m incredibly thankful for. Another reason why I love photography so much: you get to meet everyone.
I hope that any of this was helpful. The point that I wanted to make with this entry is that what you see on a photographer’s portfolio is very rarely how it began. There’s a whole process we go through. Hours and hours, days and days, of constant editing, re-editing, imagining, and re-imagining. For me personally, when I take a photograph it’s because I have in mind what I know it can be. That journey is never-ending and there is so much to learn from one another.
Happy shooting!