More on Post Processing

Today’s Post by Mark Toal

This isn’t going to be a technical write-up on how to process your images. There are enough of those on-line to keep you busy for years.

I’m often asked if I post process my images and the answer is absolutely. Just as Joe edits these words that I write I need to make adjustment to my photographs to emphasize certain things in my images. The image file that comes out of the camera is just the beginning for me.

The main thing that I do to every image is a little sharpening and contrast adjustment since I usually shoot in RAW. Almost every image also has some warmth (yellow) added and a very slight vignette to darken the edges and emphasize the center of the photo.

Edge burning is a traditional darkroom technique frequently used by Ansel Adams and was explained by him in the book “The Print,” where he mentions edge that’s it effective technique for strengthening the photograph’s composition.

My next step in to look for colors in the photograph, especially yellow and blue, and increase their saturation. Increasing saturation of reds can often cause your eyes to go to that part of the image and never leave it. You have to also be careful with greens since when increasing saturation, they can start to look fluorescent.

In the above image you can see how I have brought out the yellows and blues and increased contrast and sharpness just slightly.