01/02/2026
How to edit a photo.
Simple process of guiding the eye to focus on what’s important. This image is fairly good from the start but little adjustments can take it to the next level.
Here’s the process you see in the final result:
1. Exposure: enhance the detail of the photo without compromising bit depth. Adding contrast to reflect a real world environment.
2. Color Correction: raw photos can be desaturated by nature in order to preserve details/data/information giving the editor creative freedom to establish a look that they desire. Meaning you can make it warm if you want without sacrificing details. For this photo I chose to boost the colors by adding contrast and vibrance while adjusting the blacks and whites for a more dynamic look. The goal is to make the colors look the way we want while keeping a sense of realness.
3. Effects: Texture, clarity, dehaze and lens settings are all adjusted to make the subject stand out.
4. Masking: enhancing/recreating the lighting that was shot on site to draw the eye of the viewer. This step is subjective and can lead to amazing photos
The process seems simple but has taken years to fine-tune. It’s easy to go overboard while at the same time it’s easy to not know how to use these tools. Photography is art at its core and all art is a form of expression. The better we understand the expression/message we want to convey the better our photos can be.
For example, this photo was shot at in the Peoria Heights, IL. They love bold colors while staying true to their roots in their culture. Boosting color’s and highlighting the restaurant was the end goal. It was an easy decision to just let the photo do all the talking and all I had to do l, as an editor, was get out of the way haha.
I hope this post teaches us that photographers and photography is so much more than buying expensive cameras, shooting and sending. It’s small decisions, that have taken years to master, every step of the way.
So next time you see a good photo you may be able to recognize what the artist intentions were and if they executed them well.
