Cindy and flash and umbrella. Tokyo, 2017

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Photography: Part 5. How to Edit and Process Your Photos

What is the best way to edit and process your photos?


The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Photography


Editing isn’t post processing

Laughing lady. NYC, 2015
Laughing lady. NYC, 2015
  • Editing: the art of choosing your best photos.
  • Post Processing: applying a filter, adjusting contrast and converting to black and white, cropping, anything that is done “post processing”.

The problem, most photographers say “editing” and actually mean “post processing”.

The art of editing

LAUGHING LADY by Eric Kim Contact Sheets from MASTERS
LAUGHING LADY by Eric Kim Contact Sheet

Editing: CHOOSING and SELECTING your best photos. A photo editor for a magazine isn’t sitting behind Lightroom or Photoshop all day, processing pictures. No, they choose the layout, and choose the best photos to include.

Also an editor for writing decides what text to remove, or cut away, or edit out.

Therefore as a photographer, when you are “editing” your photos, you decide which photos to keep, and which photos to ditch.


How do I know which photos to keep?

1-hanoi lake eric kim street photography contact sheet
Hanoi lake contact sheet, 2016

For me, I choose photos which punch me in the gut. If I don’t have a gut reaction to my photos, and I don’t feel any emotion, I ditch it.

Man in silhouette. Street photograph at Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi, 2017 / ERIC KIM
Man in silhouette. Street photograph at Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi, 2017 / ERIC KIM

More specifically, I generally judge my photos on:

  1. Composition: Is the composition dynamic and clean? Do I see diagonals, triangles, curves, and is there good separation and figure to ground in the picture?
  2. Emotion: Do I feel anger, sadness, joy, or frustration when looking at the photo? A photo without emotion is dead.
  3. Soul: Your photos must reveal a part of your soul, show your inner mind, and what your perspective of the world is. Photography is all about your personal perspective on the world. In short words, “Do I see myself in my own photos?” And, “Why am I the only one who can shoot these photos?”

How to post process your photos

NYC, 2016

RAW vs JPEG

  • RAW: the raw file and image. Allows more flexibility for you to post process the photos afterwards. RAW files are much bigger than JPEG images.
  • JPEG: JPEG offers less flexibility than RAW, but “straight out of camera”, the pictures look better and require minimal processing.

Why shoot RAW?

If you want ultimate control over how to adjust the colors, contrast, or any other adjustments, use RAW.

The biggest problem with RAW: too many options.

To keep it simple, if you shoot RAW, just use filters or presets. Download my free ERIC KIM LIGHTROOM PRESETS.

I like using presets, because it is like shooting film. You get a consistent look over a long period of time, and it is less stress and hassle.

Why shoot JPEG?

Personally if I shoot color, I prefer the colors from JPEG. Why? In my experience, getting colors to look good in RAW and digital is very difficult. Camera companies spend millions of dollars on their JPEG in-camera processing algorithms and processes. Therefore, if you want good and vibrant colors straight out of camera, with less hassle, just shoot JPEG.


Editing and Processing tools for photography

Woman with eyes. NYC, 2016
Woman with eyes. NYC, 2016

Okay, there are so many options for editing and post processing. Practical ideas:

For Mobile,
– VSCO: best presets for mobile cameras (I like A6 for color)
– Adobe Lightroom CC: their new presets work very well
– Apple Photos: to select and organize your pictures

For desktop/laptop,
– Adobe Lightroom (either the new CC version, or the classic desktop version)


Mobile vs desktop?

So, how do you know whether to use mobile or desktop?

  • Mobile: for photos shot on your iPhone or Android phone, or if you shoot JPEG on your digital camera.
  • Desktop: for more heavy-duty post processing for RAW files. Or, if you have tons of photos to look through and edit.

Workflow

I generally recommend the steps:

  1. Look through all your photos, and “pick” or “flag” or “favorite” a picture when you like it.
  2. Do all your post processing or applying filters at the very end.
  3. Export your favorite photos as JPEG files and backup in Dropbox, your hard drive, Google Drive.

With workflow, KISS — keep it simple.

The mistake a lot of photographers make:

They post process while choosing their best photos.

This will slow down your workflow. Quickly select all your photos, and then at the very end — post process them.


What filters or presets should I use?

Cindy diagonal composition
Processed in RAW with ERIC KIM MONOCHROME 1600 preset. Ricoh GR II. NYC, 2016 #cindyproject

Aesthetics and post processing and filters — it is all a matter of your personal taste.

Treat post processing like salting your food. Not too much, because overly salty food tastes horrible. Just enough.

And we all have different tastes. Some of us like saltier food, some of us like salty foods, some of us love cumin and paprika, some of us prefer cinnamon and cilantro.

Do you prefer vanilla or chocolate ice cream?

NYC, 2014. Shoot with Kodak Porta 400 Color Film.
NYC, 2014. Shoot with Kodak Porta 400 Color Film.

Do you prefer color or black and white? Just shoot whatever you like.

Your friend might prefer chocolate, you might prefer vanilla. Or you might prefer pistachio ice cream.

Generally, I find black and white is good because if helps us simplify our photos. If you’re a beginner, I recommend black and white, to better understand exposure, composition, and framing. Also to keep it simple, when you’re starting off, just shoot high contrast black and white JPEG.

Color wheel theory: Dynamic tension between opposing colors.
Color wheel theory: Dynamic tension between opposing colors. Image from CREATIVE EVERY DAY

Color photography is more difficult, because with colors, there are more variables. More color is more complexity. But with color, I prefer the vibrancy, the upbeat mood, and the challenge of color photography.

Opponent based color theory. Opposing colors become more intense when placed next to one another.
Opponent based color theory. Opposing colors become more intense when placed next to one another.

Conclusion: Editing is more important than post processing

My grandma, laughing. Seoul, 2017.
My grandma, laughing. Seoul, 2017.

The art of choosing your best photos is far more difficult than post processing your photos and using filters.

0-halmunee contact sheet-1
My laughing grandma. Contact sheet.

My suggestion:

Spend 99% of your time and focus editing (choosing your best photos), and only 1% of your time post processing your photos (applying presets, filters, adjusting contrast).

And ultimately, the most important part of your photos — it isn’t whether your photo is “pretty” or whether you will get a lot of likes on Facebook or Instagram.

Cindy laughing at red shrine. Kyoto, 2017.
Kyoto, 2017. Laughing Cindy. #cindyproject

The ultimate judge of whether your photo is good or not:

Do I like my own photo?

ERIC

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Mastering Photography