Post-Processing Part II

OK...where were we? Right...we adjusted the exposure of the demo image. The reason I was able to make such drastic changes are two-fold. First, I shoot everything in RAW format. Second, the Canon 5D MkII has an amazing dynamic range. Depending on the level of camera you have, you will experience different ranges of control over your edits. That is why I cannot stress enough that if you want the most control over your photos, you MUST shoot RAW. Most all DSLRs and some higher end point & shoot cameras will support RAW formats.

When shooting in jpeg, the photo is compressed to save space, and much of the data is lost. RAW format is the actual data that the sensor records without any compression or loss of image quality. There is of course a tradeoff...my 5D MkII records a file size of 21Mb to 30Mb each. That can fill up a memory card (or hard drive) quickly. The funny thing is, I am changing my shooting "mentality" back towards when I shot film. When Shooting film, I would always be sure that before I took the shot, it was worth the expense of the film. Now, I think about whether it is worth the expense of space to take the shot.

OK, back to the demo photo. Here is where we left it:

Now that the exposure is close to what I would want, It's time to crop. Remember the Crop Post? I'd like to focus in on the opening that looks through to the Bay. I also like the blue plaque on the wall, so I want to keep that in the shot. Another component of a crop, is to always anchor the subject. That is if you are showing the entire subject. If you are shooting a detail, this "rule" does not apply. In this case, the bottom of the photo must show the anchor point of the building and columns. Can't have the building floating in mid air. My crop choice is shown here.

Usually, in my workflow, the very first thing I start with is white balance. I want to make sure the colors are correct before moving on. In the case of this photo, the white balance is pretty much dead-on, so I didn't mess with it. I've since changed my mind. To me, this photo is too cool. No, not the "hey Daddy-O", or "Arthur Fonzerelli" cool, but a slight bluish or "cool" cast. This photo shows a warm inviting body of water, and green bright foliage that should portray warmth. I can change this by changing the color temperature of the photo by changing the white balance. One way to do this is to change the white balance mode to "shade" or "cloudy". This will warm up the photo slightly. I will do it manually to taste by moving the temperature slider towards "warm". Here is the shot warmed up from 5300K to 6000K...and that is Kelvin, so it is an actual temperature measurement (don't ask me, I don't get it):

Doesn't it feel more inviting?

The final thing I want to change here is to try one more trick (remember I mentioned this in Part I?) to bringing up the water in the background. Photoshop Lightroom has the ability to change the luminance (brightness) and saturation (color depth) of individual colors. I chose the water in the background, and reduced the luminance so the exposure is effectively reduced. I also increased the saturation which basically turned it "more blue" Here is the result:

One thing you may notice is that the photo is a little bit cooler due to the increased blue saturation. There are a few small edits I might make here based on taste. I could warm it up slightly to compensate for the blue shift, and I could also decrease the saturation of the greens to reduce the intensity of the bushes. At this point it is all personal taste.

Just as a reminder, here is the original photo we started with: