P
HOTOSHOPHASBEEN
withus since1988,andmost
ofus havebeenshootingon
di gitalcamerassinceatleast
the late1990s,andyet,formany
people,digitaleditingis atbest
a mysteryandin somecasesstillviewed
as‘cheating’.Relyingon yourcamera
toproducea finishedJPEGis akinto
ta kingyourfilmto a high-streetlab
fo r processing– youwillgetacceptable
re sults,butyouwillhaveno controlover
the finalimage.
Workup yourRAWs
Whena digitalcameratakesa picture,
you havetheoptionof savingtheimage
asa RAWfile,a JPEG,or both.Whenyour
cameraoutputsa JPEG,in-builtediting
processeswillboostcontrast,saturation
and othervariablesto producethebest-fit
fo r thetypeof scene.Thismeansthatyour
shothasalreadybeenedited,so whynot
ta kemorecontrolof theprocess?
Thinkof a RAWfileas a digitalnegative
- not muchuseon itsown,butfullof data
thatwillletyouproducethebestpossible
finalimage.In thedaysof film,printers
wouldspendhoursgettingthemostoutof
negatives– thatwasn’t‘cheating’,it was
ju stpartof thewholepicture-making
process.It’sthesamewithdigitalimages,
and by noteditingyourownworkyouare
st oppingshortof creatingperfection.
Gettherightsoftware
Thereareseveraleditingsuiteson the
market– it’sessentiallya personalchoice.
Adobe’sPhotoshopandLightroomare
the industrystandards,butthemonthly
subscriptionmodelcanputsomepeople
off,whileAffinityandSkylumoffergood
one-offpaymentalternatives.
AboveAdobePhotoshopCC, Lightroom,
Af finityandSkylumall offerexcellent
editingsoftwarecapabilities.
LeftEditing
yo urworkis
a ke y partof
thecreative
pr ocess.Think
ofit as a digital
darkroom
whereyouget
th e mostoutof
yo urimages.
AboveWe editedtheshotusing
Photoshop’stools.
46 PRACTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY
This long exposure shot of alighthousewas
ca ptured in both JPEG andRAWformats.
The ‘before’ image above istheJPEG
st raight out of the camera. Despitebeing
ru n through the camera’s built-inediting
su ite, it’s dull, lacking in impactanddoesn’t
make the most of the long exposureon the
incomingtide.Thelightconditionsat the
ti mewereveryflat,andthecamera’sedit
has failedto makethemostof theimage.
Ju st a fewminutes’workon theRAWfile
in Photoshophasrevealeda muchmore
st rikingshot(right).
SEE THE POWER
OF EDITING
LEARN TO USE &
9 EMBRACE EDITING
BEFORE
TIP
KEEPTHE
EDITINGSIMPLE
Theaimof editingshouldbe
toenhancewhat’sthere.If
yo urimagesstartto look
unnaturalyou’ve
gonetoofar.
