# Should your photos be processed consistently?



## nerwin (Jul 25, 2016)

I've really been struggling with my photo editing technique. When I look through all my photos, there is just a huge inconsistency in my photos. I've always editing photos on a case by case kind of thing because not all photos with have the same exact lighting therefor will require slightly different processing techniques.

If you look at a lot of the popular photographers on Flickr, Instagram or 500px and you'll see a common trend of the flat film vsco style images and all of their photos have that kind of look. That's okay if that is their style. Not all photographers use that processing technique...but a lot of the popular ones have their own consistent style.

I don't have one, I'm always jumping around and I don't know if that is a bad thing for my photography or not. Should I process all my photos consistently? If so...how can I find my style? Or is my style processing images individually?


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## pixmedic (Jul 25, 2016)

it depends on what you want to do with the photos. 
for client work? yes. 
if our portfolio wasn't consistent, then the clients would not know what to expect when they got their pictures taken. 
I personally believe consistency is important for professional work. 

if the photos are just for you, then do what you like. if you want to change things up every month, week, or even day, go for it. 

consistency will eventually develop your "style".
OR, develop a "style" you like and just try to be consistent in future editing.


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## nerwin (Jul 25, 2016)

pixmedic said:


> it depends on what you want to do with the photos.
> for client work? yes.
> if our portfolio wasn't consistent, then the clients would not know what to expect when they got their pictures taken.
> I personally believe consistency is important for professional work.
> ...



That's the thing...I have no idea what I want to do! It's giving me a headache when I process my work.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 25, 2016)

nerwin said:


> I've really been struggling with my photo editing technique. When I look through all my photos, there is just a huge inconsistency in my photos. I've always editing photos on a case by case kind of thing because not all photos with have the same exact lighting therefor will require slightly different processing techniques.
> 
> If you look at a lot of the popular photographers on Flickr, Instagram or 500px and you'll see a common trend of the flat film vsco style images and all of their photos have that kind of look. That's okay if that is their style. Not all photographers use that processing technique...but a lot of the popular ones have their own consistent style.
> 
> I don't have one, I'm always jumping around and I don't know if that is a bad thing for my photography or not. Should I process all my photos consistently? If so...how can I find my style? Or is my style processing images individually?



You bring up a good point. I have been loading Picture Control profiles in my D3300. What a time saver! The bad part is a shoot more with my Canon SX60Hs because it's with me most of the time.


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## pixmedic (Jul 25, 2016)

nerwin said:


> pixmedic said:
> 
> 
> > it depends on what you want to do with the photos.
> ...




honestly then?
go for consistency. 
even if its on a set by set basis. take one photo of the bunch, process it until you are happy, then try to make the others match. 

when i set WB in LR, i can look at the actual number and match it in other photos. its not always going to be exactly the same...may need some tweaking...but its a good starting point. same with color and temp. it helps me get a close starting point, and makes it easier to keep my photos consistent.


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## smoke665 (Jul 25, 2016)

jcdeboever said:


> nerwin said:
> 
> 
> > I've really been struggling with my photo editing technique. When I look through all my photos, there is just a huge inconsistency in my photos. I've always editing photos on a case by case kind of thing because not all photos with have the same exact lighting therefor will require slightly different processing techniques.
> ...



JC to clarify are you saving as JPEG or RAW? I'm struggling with how much control my camera actually has. Some settings only apply to the the JPEG image created by the camera but there are some others that actually influence the raw files. I've had to turn every option off, until I can fully explore how they work.


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## nerwin (Jul 25, 2016)

I suppose by looking through my images, I'm kind of seeing that I tend to lean more to the constrasty vibrant style. 

I should probably stop download free LR presets...I keep downloading them because I'm always trying to figure out what I like and what is me but its really not working out that well.


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## jcdeboever (Jul 25, 2016)

smoke665 said:


> jcdeboever said:
> 
> 
> > nerwin said:
> ...



Here is a link that details everything.
http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/microsite/picturecontrol/catalog/PicCon.pdf

The easiest way (d3300)  is to create a profile (using one raw file from that day's shoot) on computer using NX2 software's picture control, then select all the files, click on that profile, and walk away for a few minutes and it will batch edit them. Done, easy and fast.


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## vintagesnaps (Jul 25, 2016)

You're looking at popular photos on mostly amateur photo sharing sites; popular doesn't necessarily mean good, people like lots of fads that come and go. Get your eyes & brain used to looking at & thinking about good photos like work by master photographers, etc.

I think it's necessary to get proper exposures, frame shots well, get good compositions, then adjust/edit as needed. I don't know how your original photos look but in my experience, if exposure's off etc. it's more likely there will be more post work necessary.

I'm a long time film photographer, I also shoot digitally. Either way it depends, but for me most photos don't need much post work (obviously there's a process, you gotta get the photos off the strip of film or off a media card for photos to be viewable). If I have a good photo to start with I can enhance it or adjust it but don't have to spend so much time post processing. If I mess up the exposure I'll probably have some work to do afterwards.

I think it takes time to develop a style, that will probably come with lots of practice and experience.


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## nerwin (Jul 25, 2016)

Well I decided it was best to just delete all the LR presets I had except the ones I made for sharpening, lens corrections, etc. I spent way too much time messing around with filters trying to make my photos look like someone else's instead of mine. So hopefully by adjusting the sliders myself, I will come up with my own style of editing.


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## waday (Jul 25, 2016)

nerwin said:


> Well I decided it was best to just delete all the LR presets I had except the ones I made for sharpening, lens corrections, etc. I spent way too much time messing around with filters trying to make my photos look like someone else's instead of mine. So hopefully by adjusting the sliders myself, I will come up with my own style of editing.


I (personally) don't think there's anything wrong with someone else's presets, as long as it gets YOU the image YOU want. 

Also, just because you have presets, that doesn't mean that you can't do additional edits once you use the preset. For instance, I have some LR presets that, on particular images or for particular looks, will get me half the way there. I then manually alter the image to finish it to my desire.

It doesn't have to be black-and-white. There's a bunch of murky grey in there, at least for me.


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## TheLibrarian (Jul 25, 2016)

A lot of it is marketing and perception. I think it was an article here about sports photography where a 'master' took a photo of a tennis match and someone else also pro took another picture of the same match but this time in color. Both were on the museum wall but neither seemed all that great or interesting to me. Maybe i dont know enough to understand how great I'm supposed to think it is. Like music for musicians, art for artists and performance art. I think you develop your style by trying different things until you establish what you like all the time. 

I would find it a boring artist who just did the same thing all the time. I can see the benefit of having consistency within a set or photobook for a weding album or something like this but keeping the same editing style for 40 years with all these changes in technology does not seem best. It seems more in photography than others you see that rules were made to be broken. Maybe if you're always going at least in the same direction you will get better at your flat smeary style. I hate editing and am an sooc purist myself, mostly because i cant be bothered.


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## snowbear (Jul 25, 2016)

I find that most of my edits are real simple, but then I only shoot for me: Straighten; crop; tweak exposure, white balance, clarity and/or saturation; select the lens (if a profile is available) to adjust distortions; and add keywords.  Sometimes I need clone out sensor boogers or crap I didn't see or couldn't remove from the scene.  I have the export set to sharpen for screen (I rarely print), copy it to Flickr as the target collection and publish.


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## nerwin (Jul 25, 2016)

waday said:


> nerwin said:
> 
> 
> > Well I decided it was best to just delete all the LR presets I had except the ones I made for sharpening, lens corrections, etc. I spent way too much time messing around with filters trying to make my photos look like someone else's instead of mine. So hopefully by adjusting the sliders myself, I will come up with my own style of editing.
> ...



That's what I used presets for, but I spent WAY too much time going back forth through the 100 of presets I had (I didn't really delete them, just put them away) but none of them just didn't do what I want or it just didn't feel right, you know? 

I know some go absolutely insane with editing their photos. 

Maybe I should share one of my RAW files, I'd love to see what others would do.


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## Vtec44 (Jul 25, 2016)

Go for consistency.  It's MUCH harder than you think.

Try getting a consistency skin tone through out various lighting and mixed lighting.  Even with different lenses on the same camera, it's tough.  If you nail it, it shows the level of proficiency you're at to be able to produce consistent result.


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## nerwin (Jul 25, 2016)

I guess I have no idea how I should or want to edit my photos. I tried the VSCO thing, didn't care for it. Not my thing so there's that.

I don't want to make my photos "over the top" But I don't really want them to be flat and boring, I want to add some life to them but just bumping up the contrast slider doesn't always do that.  I've been watching photographers on YouTube process their photos in LR and man, I just suck at it. They have a system and they know what exactly they want. I got nothing, no clue. When out shooting, I'm not even thinking about where I am going to take this photo later in LR. There is so many options and it just gets overwhelming sometimes.


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## The_Traveler (Jul 25, 2016)

nerwin said:


> I guess I have no idea how I should or want to edit my photos. I



For me, the choice how I edit individual pictures comes from the content and my feelings about it. 

I typically edit pictures of travel in the warm climates to be warm and lush - because that's the impression that I had of these countries and that's how I want the pictures to look.( Kin Pun Journey | _07985291337-2 )

When I went to Iceland, it seemed that a warm glow would be inappropriate to everything about the picture - unless the scene was clearly in the golden hour  (Iceland - 2015 | Route 42). (Iceland - 2015 | Icelandic Pony)

Street shots I edit according to what I remember the feeling - I generally like straightforward clean colors. (Tea Party Rally - DC - Fall 2009 | teabag700__0795204 )

And if I get control the colors, to give the impression I want, I convert the scene to BW (Random Street Shots | Ball Up)



nerwin said:


> They know what exactly they want. I got nothing, no clue.



These people seem to know exactly what impression they want the color to give so that it matches with the content.  
Try asking yourself that question and then let the answers be your guide to processing.


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