faq: processing | before & after
Monday, October 20, 2008 at 10:20 AM
I got quite a few questions a few weeks ago on my Ask Jamie a Question post, and I thought I'd combine a few of them and do a little post about my post-processing workflow. First of all, I shoot everything in RAW, because I've just found it allows me the most flexibility in terms of editing and recovery when my exposures are not-so-perfect! I know, shame on me, but not every photo I take is 100% properly exposed, and for this reason, I love RAW! I also love warm photos, and I find that Canon cameras, by default on the Auto White Balance setting, produce really cool photos--which I hate! Ahh, blue and green tones make me cringe; I love the warmth.
The number one thing you can do to improve the colour and look of your photos is to expose correctly! I shoot all manual which ensures that I, not my camera like Av and Tv settings, am in control of reading the light and setting my settings! It's great. It takes a lot of practice, and when I started shooting manual I'd move to a different light and totally forget to change my settings. I shot a lot of all black photos, or all white photos! Haha, but in practice and over time, I am pretty much able to nail my exposures 99% consistently.
Left: Unedited photo right out of the camera
Right: I processed in LR, bumping up the white balance to a temperature of 6000, adding a little contrast and a slight vignette! That's all. Simple hey?
Ooh, I love this edit. Once again, I love the warm colours!
Top Photo: Right out of the camera, no editing.
Bottom: Batch-processed in LR; correct color temperature add a little contrast. Also, for this shot I ran an action in Photoshop I created for a little extra "something"--Basically it was just a light brown multiply layer on 30%!
Left: Unedited, straight out of the camera
Right: Batch processed in LR (colour, contrast, vignette) and then brought into Photoshop and once again added a multiply layer at 30% (that's what gives it that great warm feel.)
Top: This is an example of a straight out of the camera unedited image that I have underexposed! I know, I know; terrible hey? But look! I shot in RAW so it turns into the bottom image.
Bottom: Batch processed in LR, bumping up the exposure a little more than usual to brighten the image. A vignette and color, with contrast!
I hope this has answered some of your questions: let me know if there are any more by commenting and I may "edit" this post and add them at the bottom. :)
The number one thing you can do to improve the colour and look of your photos is to expose correctly! I shoot all manual which ensures that I, not my camera like Av and Tv settings, am in control of reading the light and setting my settings! It's great. It takes a lot of practice, and when I started shooting manual I'd move to a different light and totally forget to change my settings. I shot a lot of all black photos, or all white photos! Haha, but in practice and over time, I am pretty much able to nail my exposures 99% consistently.
Left: Unedited photo right out of the camera
Right: I processed in LR, bumping up the white balance to a temperature of 6000, adding a little contrast and a slight vignette! That's all. Simple hey?
Ooh, I love this edit. Once again, I love the warm colours!
Top Photo: Right out of the camera, no editing.
Bottom: Batch-processed in LR; correct color temperature add a little contrast. Also, for this shot I ran an action in Photoshop I created for a little extra "something"--Basically it was just a light brown multiply layer on 30%!
Left: Unedited, straight out of the camera
Right: Batch processed in LR (colour, contrast, vignette) and then brought into Photoshop and once again added a multiply layer at 30% (that's what gives it that great warm feel.)
Top: This is an example of a straight out of the camera unedited image that I have underexposed! I know, I know; terrible hey? But look! I shot in RAW so it turns into the bottom image.
Bottom: Batch processed in LR, bumping up the exposure a little more than usual to brighten the image. A vignette and color, with contrast!
I hope this has answered some of your questions: let me know if there are any more by commenting and I may "edit" this post and add them at the bottom. :)
Labels: photographers
posted by jamiedelaine
9 Comments:
I always LOVE the look of your images!!!
This is great! This sounds exactly like what I do too. I hate those blue tones too and I'm always warming my photos up. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jamie- this is really cool to see :) I was just telling someone the other day that my Canon gives off naturally cool pics and I ended up warming them all up myself. I'm hoping to get the 5D soon and if I do at least I won't be surprised to once again see some naturally cool images right off the camera.
Hey Jamie~thanks for the helpful info! I'm always trying to find the balance of not too cool, but not too warm. I do have one other question. I was wondering what size your photos are on your blog. Right now mine are 900x600 pixels, but I feel like they're a bit bigger than I want and I haven't figured out a different size yet. Thanks!
Thanks for doing this, Jamie! It's really helpful to see before and after pictures. It also shows how you take great pictures and make them perfect! I love how you haven't listed twenty different action sets to use. I'm already overwhelmed with the amount out there and have trouble using the two I do own. Did you ever use Bridge? If so, how much better is LR?
I have another question that doesn't have to do with your processing. What aperture do you usually shoot at? For instance, what was the f-stop you used for these pictures?
By the way, your Canadian spelling of "colour" and "favourite" is fun! :-)
Thanks a lot for this FAQ posts, Jamie, you are very generous :)
Anyway, one thing I have been observing in your pictures that I don't see in the ones you've used as examples here, is the crispiness and perfectly sharp focus you have. I was wondering how you manage to get such sharp focus when using wide apertures and/or moving subjects (see pic #16 of Sarah & Mike wedding).
Thanks a lot in advance. I have no words to express how much I love your work :)
ahh Jamie I just love you! :D
I seriously couldn't believe your editing was so simple, even though you told me! :D Anyways, I have a question about how you bump up the color temperature. I use Lightroom, and when I bump up the temperature, it kind of gets orangy. How can you tell what the temperature reading is?
I figured out a size I like better! Don't worry about answering my question :-)
Your light brown multiply later set at 30%... this sounds really interesting. I've recently discovered the whole multiply layer idea and have been playing around with it but I can't seem to get the right color going. Would you mind telling what color (RGB) your light brown is? I love the look it gives your photos. I love your work, period. You do a great job and I am inspired that you are so young and have only been in business for yourself for a year. I am young myself, not as young as you I don't think, and have only been in business about a year myself too so it's very inspiring to see you doing so well. Thanks for all the help you're willing to give!
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