So what is image editing?
The truth is it varies from photographer to photographer. Personally I prefer to approach an image with the intent of perfecting the lighting & exposure to minimise any post image editing. I set my exposures manually to control & create the image within my mind.
Other photographers just snap away in auto & correct the images in Photoshop or similar later. I wont say that this approach is inferior as the images can be just as beautiful but this approach can have an effect on quality when the image is output onto media, (the finished print).
The best way to unravel the myth would be my means of some examples...
O.K. so the effect is quite subtle in this image. I took this image with my mobile studio lighting & created the image with careful exposure control.
The result being very little post image editing required.
To be more precise I only adjusted the contrast & colour balance & darkened the bottom of the image for effect...
O.K. the effect is more pronounced on this image. Evan though the originall raw file fell within the ideal range on the camera histogram I felt the image was a little dark.
I first corrected the exposure & then turned my attention to the colour balance. As the image was taken in the shade I had to increase the colour temperature of the original raw file. I also tweeked the contrast, in fact I have my own default contrast settings in photoshop & I rarely have to change these...
O.K. A little more extreme this time. As we all know the weather in Blighty is a little disappointing at times & the sky's gray & drab.
In this image I've obviously added a more pleasing sky, the more observant of you will also notice the usual contrast & colour balance corrections too...
In this final image lets step it up a little. Due to the exposure difference of the tower & the image of the bride I had no option but to set my camera on a tripod & blend the two images in photoshop. I also added a third image for the stars in the sky.
Before blending the images the usual contrast & colour balance corrections have been made which then just leaves the magic to happen...
To end this post I think it would be worthwhile mentioning RAW Files. All my images are taken & stored as RAW Files, these are basically RAW Image Data.
Raw Files can be edited non destructively as the original data is always there. Any edited images are stored separately as Tiff files(these can be re-edited if needed) & finally out put as j-pegs. J-pegs are basically final output files & shouldn't be edited.
I hope you've enjoyed this little post & maybe evan learn't a few tricks for your own image collections.
Taran...