Post Processing — Tips & Tricks

Photography is a form of storytelling, and being able to make that story come alive is a challenging but essential step in becoming a great photographer.

In the shot above, we have an evocative photo that illustrates the austerity of an early morning hike.  The sun is low, golden, and bright.  The photo takes on almost a monotone feel, further emphasizing the singular feeling of adventure.

The trick to this shot is getting the lighting right.  I always say that it’s much easier to lighten dark areas than to darken light areas.  Thus, this photo was significantly underexposed to begin with.

Here is the original photo – rather dark.  However, when upping the exposure in post processing (ie, adding more light) the entire scene gets brighter while the sun does not become severely overexposed.  Instead, it takes on a nice golden glow, radiating out and coating the entire scene with a mysterious morning light.

If your shot isn’t “sunny” enough, consider changing your white balance slider to inject more yellow into your shot.

Go forward and give it a shot,

Court