EDITING WORKFLOW
It is almost with an apology that I start by saying that I have never used Lightroom for editing my images, largely because I started with Photoshop before LR became available and I suffer from ‘old dog, new tricks’ syndrome and also haven’t been convinced of the need for change. I can appreciate that the Library and Develop modules in LR allow users to undertake these actions in one program but I’ve stuck to what I’m used to using! If you are a Lightroom user, please substitute ‘Library’ for ‘Bridge’ and ‘Develop’ for ‘Adobe Camera Raw’ (ACR). I have not intended this blog to be a tutorial for someone unfamiliar with post processing using Adobe’s programs but if you are interested and require specific help, do not hesitate to get in touch via the Contact page in the main menu of this website.
Files have originally been created in RAW format
Load files into Bridge (or LR Develop).
File name: Date/Location/Subject eg 2023/7_Shoreditch_Amy
Sorting through over 300 files can be daunting.
First sort: delete any blurred, out of focus, awkward pose/facial expression, closed eyes, interruptions to view, etc. A significant advantage of a mirrorless camera and eye tracking is that there are very few dud images. The disadvantage is that there are fewer easy discards at this stage.
Second sort: run through images and assign one star to all images with potential.
· Rearrange images using ‘Sort by’ tool from the menu top right of screen: ‘Sort by rating’.
· At this stage I open up a new sub-folder eg “2013/7_Shoreditch_Amy_Selection” and move starred items to this folder. I transfer both folders to my remote hard drive before any further sorting/ editing.
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Third sort: The most time-consuming! Select all images in the ‘Selection’ folder and then remove the star rating. In this particular shoot, we moved to various locations during the day and I go through each location separately, by loading several similar images onto the Bridge screen at the same time and starring any with potential for editing. Work through each location in the same way. You can afford to be quite ruthless as it is likely that there will be several that are similar and several that are not the best. A number of the locations required Amy to be photographed walking and getting a shot mid-stride was important. Do not assign any rating to the latter group. This resulted in a reduction to approximately 50 images with a star rating. By re-sorting by rating again, I could create another sub-folder ‘2013/7_Shoreditch_Amy_Edit’.
Having got this far, I can now be quite selective. By now, I only have five or six images from each shooting location – easily viewable on my screen at the same time. At this stage I can be forensic in the analysis of the images and tend to use the range of star ratings much more. Using the space bar on each thumbnail allows me the view the image at full screen size (or even larger using the + key). This checks for any unintentional out of focus parts - principally the nearer eye in a close up or both eyes in a longer shot should be pin sharp.
Images rated at four or five stars are then chosen for editing in Adobe Camera Raw.
Of course, it depends how much time you have but obviously it is possible to process the Raw files of more images and do the forensic selection once they are all processed.
ACR Workflow
These images were shot on a very contrasty sunny day so I tended to bracket shots to try to balance the exposure. This meant that ‘batch processing’ using the same edits for a number of images wasn’t really possible, unlike working in a studio where the light is balanced and consistent.
I thought it best to concentrate on one image to show how I worked on it:
Before
After
Not all the stages are necessary on every shot but this is a bit of a walk around the tools I use most frequently. I don’t use any Presets, although there is an extensive range to try if you so desire. Call it arrogance or independence but I like to create my own style.
· Crop Tool(right toolbar) The first thing I do is to make sure the horizon is straight. Although I have the grid and level switched on in my viewfinder, I get preoccupied by concentrating on the subject and have a real tendency to lose the alignment! I also crop my images before adjusting exposure as this may cut out some very bright or dark areas which would have an effect on the general exposure. I try to stick to the standard ratios instead of custom sizes for two reasons (a) they are standard for a reason and that’s because they are aesthetically pleasing and (b) if you’re printing your images, you will usually have that size as an option. I have used a significant crop on this image as I wasn’t happy with the pole/leg positioning in the full frame image. Fortunately, my camera has lots of megapixels to spare and although I have only used a small portion of the original frame, the resulting image is pin-sharp at 15”x12”.
BASIC PANEL EDITS:
· I look at White Balance but generally that’s fine on auto.
· Similarly, Temperature and Tint sliders are usually left where they are unless something looks wrong.
· Exposure - try auto first. I find that it’s generally pretty good as the exposure simulation on the camera has been a good guide to getting it right at that stage. In fact, sometimes I will go back to my exposure as opposed to the adjustment made by the auto button.
· Generally I tend to leave the basic sliders where they are (Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, White, Black) although I might try a little tweak if I think it needs it.
· The main two adjustments I use at this stage are Texture and Clarity. The ‘urban’ look of this image can be enhanced by adding a bit of positive adjustment to both but do be careful, it’s easy to overdo the effect. If the image is principally a face, using a negative amount of clarity can give a pleasant softening effect to the subject’s skin and save time in PS later.
· I can’t really remember using Dehaze very much at all.
· I will look at Vibrance and perhaps push it up a bit, particularly if it’s a colourful subject. I rarely touch the Saturation because that saturates all the colours in the entire image and can look artificial.
OTHER EDITING TOOLS:
· Despite Marc Newton’s advice, I rarely find an adjustment curve enhances images from my Canon camera if I have undertaken the work as mentioned above, although I do find that images from my Olympus can be improved by selecting the Medium Contrast Curve.
· Sharpening. Once again, this will vary with the subject but for this image I added some sharpening (75-80%) but used the Masking slider whilst holding down the Option/ Alt key to take the sharpening away from large parts of the image.
· On occasions, I will look to use the Colour Mixer and Colour Grading tools but that’s a blog in its own right and as I didn’t use it on this image, I will leave that for another day. However, I will say that it’s a lot easier than it used to be.
· I then check for Lens Correction. Usually my computer has remembered my camera/lens combination but if it’s the first time for any particular camera or lens, it’s worth checking.
· Honestly, these processes have taken longer to read than to do and with a bit of practice and a calibrated monitor, your results should be what you were looking for.
· At this stage, it may be necessary to go to the Filter tool on the right toolbar.
· As I said, it was a sunny day with strong shadows and I used the Radial Filter to darken highlights or conversely sometimes to brighten Amy’s face. On some images, I used the Linear Filter to balance the light. I also used the Select Background filter and desaturated the background slightly on some shots, including this one. It is possible to use several filters on one image and edit one at a time. This is very much a personal feeling but I wanted to make Amy stand out as the principal subject and not be dominated by the very colourful street art in the background. On this image I used one radial filter for her left arm, which was a bit bright and another radial filer for her face, which needed brightening a little. I used a linear filter to darken the right side of the image. The quality of selection on recent upgrades to ACR/Lightroom is amazing.
· The final item of editing in ACR was to add a subtleVignette. I very rarely do this but as I have just mentioned, I wanted Amy to be the focus and a vignette gives a slight halo effect. I wanted this to be very subtle and almost unnoticeable.
· At this stage I am ready to take the image into Photoshop by clicking the Open button on the bottom right of the screen.
Photoshop workflow
The recent improvements in LR/ACR have drastically reduced the amount of work that needs to be undertaken in PS.
· Correction of converging verticals. It is possible to do the in ACR/LR but I prefer to do it manually in PS. It was not necessary in this image but often buildings will need it if the camera was pointing upwards when the shot was taken. I firstly select the whole image (dotted rectangle tool near the top of the left toolbar). Then I use Edit >Transform > Distort and drag the corner points until they are upright. Usefully, ACR/PS remembers the complete image even though it may have been cropped earlier and this may help if you need some room around the subject.
· SKIN IMPERFECTIONS. I really dislike overprocessed images and I try to have a light touch. If you have built a good relationship with the model s/he will have an opinion on what they would like removed and you can have a conversation about it on the shoot. However, here goes: create a duplicate layer (top menu bar: Layer > Duplicate Layer. (Give the layer a name) Enlarge the subject’s face on screen and use the Spot Healing Tool to go over blemishes. As mentioned earlier, if the Clarity tool in ACR/LR has been dialled down slightly, it is likely the skin will have a pleasant appearance. The strong sunlight from the side in this shot was not really flattering so a little work was needed.
· Eyes. This was not a studio shot and a lighter touch to editing was used. I created a duplicate layer (labelled Eyes), highlighted both pupils using the selection tool on the left toolbar and then from the top menu Sharpen > Smart Sharpen and adjusted the sharpness a little. Once again, I was subtle otherwise artefacts appear.
· Portrait Professional. I have this program as a plug-in and can access it via the Filter tab on the top menu bar: Filter > Anthropics > Portrait Professional. This has a wide range of tools to adjust facial features but I use it very rarely as I feel it can overcompensate and create an unrealistic ‘perfect’ face. This may be OK for a cosmetic advertisement perhaps, but not for the urban look I was aiming for.
· Have a careful look around every bit of the image to see if there is anything you would like to remove. I appreciate that this was ‘grungy London’ but I have an aversion to litter – particularly cigarette ends – so I will remove them with the Spot Healing Tool. I also took the liberty of removing a few inappropriate objects, such as tasteless stickers and a broken telephone wiring box. It’s all personal choice but using a mixture of the Spot Healing Tool, the Clone Stamp Tool and the Patch Tool, they can be made to disappear quite quickly.
I appreciate that this sounds a long, drawn out process but it’s not really. I ended up with nine images to be processed in this way which I subsequently have had printed. I have also shared them with Amy, which was part of the agreement we made on the day. Of course, practice speeds up the process but I find having a disciplined workflow really helps. I try to keep all the tweaks subtle and as authentic as possible. I have not thought about going down the AI route at all and I’m not likely to either! The process for landscapes, architecture, still life etc will be different but essentially the same for me. Certainly, in terms of selecting images, basic adjustments in ACR and removing unwanted blights like litter.
Finally, I create yet another subfolder: 2013/7_Shoreditch_Amy_Print and adjust the images for printing and covert to .jpg files. I then move the post processed folders to my plugin hard drive and delete all but the print folder (nine images) from my computer to free up space. My images are saved by my Apple Time Machine and also to the cloud on Amazon Photos.
A valuable point that Trudy Kepke pointed out was that our backlit monitors enhance the brightness of our images and we need to compensate for this when we print. I’ll talk through my print preparation process in a separate blog.
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