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T H E D A R K R O O M

T H ED A R K R O O M

Part 7 :

P H O T O G R A P H I C W I Z A R D R Y

W I T H S T E P H A N K L E I N L E I N

P O S T

P R O D U C T I O N P A R T 1 : T H E B A S I C S

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Having spent the whole day on the

beach, in the surf, and maybe even

following some kiters with my stills

camera on my kiteboard to get some

awesome angles, I’m now back home

with maybe around 10,000 new images

stacked up on my memory cards. The

fun begins! For some people it is an

enjoyable task, and for others it is a

nightmare to get through all those

images and get them stored properly,

then to select the right shots for editing

and turn some of the super cool images

into something really spectacular in

the editing process.

In Part 1 of this post production slot, I’m going to show you how I deal with all the shots I accumulate (sometimes more than 10,000 photos a day) and how to store them in such a way that you’ll find them before and after the editing process.

As with most photographers, I use Adobe Lightroom, which works for me the best and I have been using for many years (although this doesn’t mean that other programs – like Apple’s Aperture for example – are not as good). Like any other program, Lightroom can be quite

complex and take time to learn, but as soon as you get into it and become familiar with the ins and outs of it you get better and understand what the program offers. But you never really learn out and know everything about it! Even after years of processing my images through Adobe Lightroom I still discover unknown features on a regular basis. And there are tons of tutorials on the internet which can help you to become a master of your program, so check them out…

T H E D A R K R O O M

So, I have my shots ready. So what is the first thing I do? Well I make a mirror copy of my SD or Flash Card with my images onto an external hard drive where I place all my original RAW images straight from the camera. This is for two reasons: 1) I have a second copy of the new images and 2) If I import ALL my images straight into Lightroom then it slows right down while it is importing. This can take some time and uses a lot of RAM on your computer… So if you back them up first and then upload them in batches, everything will work more smoothly…

And always remember: hard drives do die! And when they do, it happens all of a sudden and all your work and all your top shots are gone forever. That’s why I have at least one extra copy of the original RAW files (one external first copy of SD cards and the second through the import into Adobe Lightroom). Also periodically I copy my best shots after I finished the editing onto a special external hard drive which I call “Top Shots”. Of this hard drive I have 2 copies in 2 different locations, just in case! Then my absolute top shots are saved in the cloud on different internet servers. It is a bit tricky (and becomes even more tricky when you start shooting 100,000 images per year) but just imagine losing all of them…

Okay, enough of saving and double copies etc! But just remember how important this is. If you don’t you’ll find out the hard way… Back to processing the images. So now I import my new RAW images from my external hard drive into Adobe Lightroom. Normally I select all the images and I set some simple keyword taps, for example: Mauritius; Kitesurfing; 2015; Wave Session; Ozone… before I push import. Now after the images are all in the program I select them all and create a Collection for example: Ozone 14.10.15 One Eye. All the photos go into the collection.

Then it is on to the first selection process. I view all the images quickly and do one of two things. I either give a potential good image which I think is worth editing later a red frame by pressing “6” or I reject the photo by pressing “x” If the image is not worth keeping. Then with all the other photos which don’t fall in those 2 categories I do nothing. After the first viewing I delete all the rejected images by going to “Photo” and “Delete Rejected Images”. Then I select all of the red framed images and view them again a second time. Now I give all the red framed images which I would really like to edit a Yellow Frame by hitting “7”… (Screenshots 1&2)

Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2

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T H E D A R K R O O M

Now the selection work is done and I can start editing those yellow framed images. It’s hard to generalize, but often out of 1000 images I end up with 250 red framed images and out of that I probably select 120 yellow frame images which I will edit. So now I select only the yellow framed images for the editing process.

Now it is on to some basic editing on the first yellow framed image. Pretty much all images will get at least some small adjustments in Tone (Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks); Presence (Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation) as well as sharpening and noise reduction.

My advice would be not to go overboard with the adjustments. Take your time and get the shot how you want it to look. Photo editing for me is some kind of art form where you can express your own personal taste and feelings for colors, composition etc. Like any kind of art form, you will find people who will love it and others who have a completely different opinion about your choices that they don’t agree with. But this is cool. This is art!

When I am happy with my initial adjustments I save the adjustment settings using Copy, then with Paste or Command + V I can paste the same adjustment settings onto the next image and so on (Screenshots 3&4). Some of the other images might be very similar and you don’t have to change any of the adjustments, but if the image changes and you have to do new basic adjustments you can copy them again with Command + C for the next images. This is an easy way to go quickly through your hundreds of photos so you don’t have to adjust every single one…

If you have a lot of very similar images you can select all those images and then on the right hand side you will find the Synchronize Settings button. Here you can make a copy of the first image basic adjustment settings and synchronize it to all the selected images in one go. But just be careful, it is very tempting to do this too often because you can save heaps of time, but often the setting for the first image doesn’t necessarily suit all the images and the quality of your edit will suffer at some stage. Editing takes time, don’t rush it!

So that is phase one! Next issue we’ll go into more detail about the finer points of editing and about some of the editing tricks and tips that can turn a ‘good’ shot into an ‘epic’ shot. Or maybe even a cover…

Screenshot 3

Screenshot 4