# An Approach to Post-Processing



## The_Traveler (Aug 8, 2014)

_This is the first part of a long article on post-processing that includes two detailed examples of evaluating an image and step by step changes with the rationale for each change and step.

_*I realize this is a long - and dense - article,  especially for a blog post but please try to persevere through it. I am  trying to unite the ideas of seeing what needs to be done with the  importance of timing and the ability to retreat from dead ends.  It is  only when you can fuse all these issues into 'understanding' that you  can get beyond the mechanical 'making things look better' into real  expression.*

*Thanks for reading.*

_
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Much of the discussions of work-flow in post-processing (PPing) is  aimed at the simpler images where most work is done globally and even  bit-level corrections aren't ambiguous. However many images require  extensive post-processing to get to the final point that the maker has  in mind.

    It is easy to talk about post-processing at a high level of generality  and vagueness &#8211; what to do first and what to leave for last. It is also  easy to talk about the mechanics of specific techniques in  post-processing. But in the middle, how to look at the image, how to  make decisions about what really to do and how to protect yourself from  time-wasting dead-ends avenues where the best path is often ambiguous.

Since I often do extensive post-processing and I hate having to redo  intricate work like selections because I have taken a wrong avenue or if  I just want to try different PPing techniques to see how to best  finalize the image, I have adopted a work-flow that relies a great deal  on making and using multiple layers to insure flexibility.

What I intend to do in this article is to talk very quickly about the  generalities of my work flow and why I do things the way I do them and  then show two examples of how I approach any image.
Understanding and deciding what should be done to make the image looks  its best is the most important and the most difficult skill to acquire.  For those new to this, I think it is best to take a very structured  approach to diagnosing the PPing needs of any image; I have written  about this before.

I always start with the few simple, basic changes - global adjustments  of exposure, tint, contrast or even the slightly less obvious white  balance. These adjustments require not too much knowledge or skill and  even a novice photographer can tackle these because there are some  external standards that can be used.(_Exposure shifts the values for the entire image up or down whereas  brightness is essentially a mid-tone adjustment. The Levels adjustment  is used to correct the tonal range and color balance of an image by  adjusting intensity levels of image shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. )_​These adjustments are often used to adjust the image back to a 'perfect' rendition of what our eye sees on a 'perfect' day.


But what if the scene isn't perfect, what if Mother Nature doesn't give  the light and shadows that we want? 
What if there is no way to get a  decent exposure of all the important parts in the camera?
What if we are not just editing to return the scene to the starting  point we saw &#8211; or a bit better; what if our vision is more than that &#8211;  to create an image that we have seen only in our mind's eye and for  which the image as caught by the camera is only the starting point?

Then how do we proceed?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At this point in the article I introduce images for which I do not hold the copyright and thus can't be posted here.

Thanks for your attention. I am pleased to get comments, corrections, criticisms.

To continue to read, go to Lew Lorton Photography | An Approach to Post Processing.


----------

