It’s been a while since I’ve actually done a blog post, so why don’t we have one where I talk about my workflow and stuff!
So, you’ve probably been asking yourself: Michael, what do you use to edit photos? Well, glad you asked that! I’m a solid user of Lightroom, and while I have tried alternatives lately due to Lightroom being a pain in some areas, it just covers my workflows so well I don’t really have a compelling option to switch to. Also, I’m a pretentious millennial and use a Mac, so there’s that too.
What is Lightroom?
Adobe Lightroom is a product that is designed for the touching-up of photos, along with the management of photos from importing to exporting. It’s been developed since 2006 with photographers in mind, and differs greatly from Photoshop. Lightroom is designed for touching-up photos whereas Photoshop is designed for photo manipulation such as airbrushing and altering history. Lightroom also allows you to save certain settings you can apply to photos as “presets” that can speed up your workflow in processing images, and this is what saves me a lot of time with your Pla-Mor photos yet them have the quality you’ve come to expect.
In Lightroom, you can adjust photos in multiple different ways: color temperature, exposure, contrast, saturation, lens corrections, and more. Heck, I could do a whole blog series on how to use Lightroom, but the important part is to use a fairly color-correct display when editing photos which is why my daily driver is a MacBook Pro: it has a calibrated display which is good because I’m on the go a lot. When I’m home, I have a Dell 27-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) display monitor that supports 99% of the sRGB spectrum so I have more space to work with but my photos don’t lose any quality in the process. I also have a Samsung 28-inch monitor that supports 100% sRGB but is a Twisted Neumatic (TN) panel so it can have color recreation issues at times, but does help me detect when dark colors are clipped (shows as matte black on this display) in a photo so I can correct it before posting my photos.
I do my best to ensure that all my photos come out color correct. What does that mean? Color correctness isn’t some goofy term, but rather ensuring that the color temperature isn’t out of whack resulting in a photo that is too blue or too orange in terms of its tone. While sometimes a colder or warmer photo is desirable, skew these too much and you often have a photo that doesn’t seem realistic. Usually I determine this visually, but a histogram can get the same results if you read it right. Unfortunately, I can’t often read it right so I let my subjective eyes to tell me what looks best. Is there anything wrong with that? I’d have to say no as it allows you a way to imprint your own style on your photos, and all we need is all photographers providing the exact same photos as anyone else would.
Now that we’ve somewhat covered Lightroom to a degree, let’s get onto some other topics that are on my mind as of late:
1. The Usage of Presets
Do I use presets? Yes. Did you buy your presets? No.
Let me elaborate: the lighting situation at Pla-Mor doesn’t change regularly, so presets save me time in processing all the Pla-Mor photos yet still resulting in quality photos to post for you to share. I don’t use presets outside of my Pla-Mor shots so you can be guaranteed that all photos I take outside of there are touched-up individually to ensure quality!
While there is nothing inherently wrong with buying presets, I feel that creating your own is better because you learn about what would make great presets so you understand the fundamentals better than if you just bought your presets.
2. Do I Edit Any of My Photos?
Depends. If it’s removing a bruise or two, yes. If it’s full-up airbrushing like you’re going on the cover of Vogue, then no. Why? I want your natural details to shine as airbrushing often removes what makes us unique and thus any photos of you unique, and I’m just a fan of natural beauty compared to what often comes out of Photoshop. Also, the full Photoshop experience is a long ordeal and if I was to run all my Pla-Mor photos through that treatment I’d still be going through the 2018 photos!
I want to be unique to provide photos no one else can or will, so if not doing any airbrushing and relying on the lighting working makes me unique so be it.
3. What image quality settings do you have on your camera?
I shoot in RAW format as this preserves all the information that comes from the image sensor of the camera, thus making post-production go a lot smoother and a lot better. While high-quality JPEGs may not have a lot of issues depending on what you’re using them for, a lot of post-production work is just better using RAW format.
Why would JPEGs have issues, might you ask? Well, JPEGs employ what is known as “lossy compression”: an algorithm, designed with human physiology in mind, removes data that we don’t normally perceive. While this doesn’t matter if you’re just taking random photos and posting/printing them, it can have ramifications in post-production work as some of that data is used during post-production. You will have to export any modifications you do make, and two rounds of lossy compression is likely to make your photos not live up to your expectations
I will note that if you’re shooting RAW format, you’re going to want a decent amount of storage on your camera and on your computer as shooting in RAW format can slurp up storage faster than a dry sponge in water.
4. Why All the Giveaways?
To build my portfolio, and to relieve stress. Believe it or not, but doing something where I have complete creative control really helps me relax from my day job as a software developer where I may not have any creative control. I want to build my portfolio so I can point people to some of the work I’ve done as I expand into photography more as a side-business.
Giveaways are great ways to get name exposure, build your portfolio, and experiment with your equipment because all they’re losing is an hour or so but no monetary investment therefore the potential loss to your clients is minimal. You’re shouldering most of the risk, so that eases any issues clients may have in participating because if the photos don’t come out they didn’t lose any money in the process.
Conclusion
You don’t always have to use Photoshop for all your photo editing needs, and to be honest I’d rather do on-location shoots with real-life effects and touch-up things in Lightroom than do everything in Photoshop as the photos I feel come out naturally beautiful and it reduces the amount of time I need to spend editing every single photo.
Granted, you can do great art in Photoshop (check out James Fridman on Twitter) but it shouldn’t be used to fix errors on your part. If you fudged up the lighting, get better lighting equipment for next time. It’s surprisingly not that expensive (in photography terms) for lighting equipment that will take you miles.
You’re a photographer which means you’re painting with light, so if you don’t understand light then you’re likely to never get the results you want in your craft.
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