Shooting is just the tip of the iceberg; the bulk of the work happens later, when the photographer arrives home and sits down to process the photos. Processing is equally creative and routine. And time-consuming.
The main stages of processing:
Step 1. Transferring photos to a computer disk and viewing all the footage in a special program (I shoot in RAW format, only certain viewers can open this format)
Step 2. Removing defects and selecting photos for further processing
Stage 3: Initial processing of the selected material (also called color correction). This includes:
- correction of white balance (so that the photo does not yellow, blue or green);
- Correction of exposure (so that the picture is not too dark or too light);
- contrast enhancement;
- saturation enhancement.
Step 4: Author’s processing – as the name implies, this is processing of photos based on the artistic vision of the author, which in turn depends very much on the aesthetic level of the photographer and his taste preferences.
I do not like to paint the grass blue or heavily retouching people into mannequins, so I take a natural approach to processing. I approach each shoot individually, and sometimes it takes me a long time to find the right processing for each particular series.
This includes:
- framing or correcting the horizon line (so that the posts are vertical and the tables are horizontal (unless the reverse is a deliberate artistic intent:) );
- more detailed work with color;
- skin retouching;
- teeth whitening if necessary, and even silhouette correction;
- removal of unnecessary objects (if they disturb the harmony and overall composition of the photo);
- adding special effects (working with textures and brushes), if the idea requires it;
- sharpening.
Step 5: Conversion (turning an already processed RAW into the familiar JPEG), creating mini-copies for web publishing, and recording the finished material on disk.