3 of my Best Editing Tips
One.
learn the tools in your box.
Adobe Lightroom Classic is an intimidating interface, yes. It seems there are endless sliders and toggles and menus. But when you break it down to use/won’t use, it becomes much simpler. I personally took the brute force method but there are several you can take:
Brute Force:
The brute force method is not necessarily as scary as it sounds and it has it’s benefits. When force learning a program, you go through all of the settings, dials, toggles, menus and learn what each individual item does. It may take a while, depending on the complexity, but with the use of modern AI as a learning tool, skimming this makes it easy. Using this method you will get a run down of well, everything. This is a good thing, you can take note and remember what tools or settings you will be using more frequently, and you can categorize into a use/not use list.
From there once you break things down, you can focus more on using those tools better. Imagine it like you’re buying a Harbor Freight, but if you’re fixing a car, you’ll likely be using their ratchets and sockets over their axes and hatchets. When i’m in Lightroom, I am more focused on perfecting my exposure and color tools over their printing services.
This is a method I use for all programs. It’s the approach I use with Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve.
video tutorials:
YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram have endless video content describing popular methods, tools, and approaches to learning these programs. This is an easy guide and pointer to where you need to be depending on the video you watch. If you watch a tutorial on Lightroom Classic masking, you’ll get all the useful filtered information about it as apposed to blindly walking the library of all Lightroom has to offer. While having a visual tour guide through these complicated programs, solely sticking to them can risk you missing features you don’t know exist.
I have found videos are a great follow-up to a brute force method. Once you learn what Lightroom Classic has to offer and you find what you may need, it makes it much easier to get experienced guidance on those topics.
personal recommendations:
I have met so many friendly and approachable artists in this field, but I have also met some who cannot be described like that. I always try to be an open book when it comes to advice and pointers for people who are at a creative block, struggling, or new to the craft. By no means am I the only resource for information, but a friendly message asking questions to someone who inspires you can go a long way. Much of what I know and use today I learned from looking at other artists who’s work I loved, and asking questions about how they do it.
These pointers described in this blog were the exact pointers I gave to another establishing artist who was excited to ask questions and learn more. I am very blessed and fortunate to be in a position to educate, and to be approachable and trusted to learn from.
Best overall practice? Use all of these methods and more to learn everything you need to know from others as well as your own discoveries to become a better artist and creator.
TWO.
inspiration / plagarism.
There’s a right and a wrong way to look up to an artists work and use it for your own creative drive. If you dig the internet long enough, you will find comments I have left on other creators posts telling them that I love the idea, the outcome, and asking permission to try it out for myself. The big part is asking permission and giving credit. I did a shoot for two Honda Civics; a 2018 Sport, and a 2019 Type R together. And in the comments I mentioned 3 other creators and thanked them for inspiring me and my style as an artist. I also thanked the car owners for allowing me their time and trust around their vehicles to shoot privately.
My new favorite publishing technique I have been using involves an 10 artboard Photoshop template for image stack collage style covers and image assembly, as well as a matting around portrait layout images. Jean-Luc DuBeau of @dubeau_photography was the one who put me onto this method which I have been using every post since. Secondly, Mike Eckert (@mike.eckert_media)and Nick (@_nicks_media) were primary influences on my editing style and how I capture mood, warmth, and dark shadows. Both of these artists I have asked questions and asked for help on these fronts. From my perspective, I love what they create and the creative tick in my brain wants to create in that style, I just didn’t know how.
three.
set yourself up to edit.
My goal when I shoot is to eliminate variables in the goal of streamlining my editing process. It’s the little things that count. There’s a good list of tips and small things to spend an extra minute on to ensure you’re not hitting yourself in the head, wishing you had better hindsight.
Exposure and color variables:
Editing can be kind of intimidating with so many exposure adjustments and color adjustments. But the exposure and white balance make a huge difference. The first biggest change I made to my shooting is not touching auto white balance. When you shoot on AWB, you camera will pick a new temperature and tint for each photo with the intention of keeping your neutral grays true. It’s no secret I prefer to edit warmer toned photos with sunsets and moody lighting. When I switched off of AWB, I started shooting either cloudy, shade, or custom temp of 5200K. I don’t follow these conditions based on real life environments, I choose them based on the warmth level I am looking for, typically I am on cloudy. The benefit of this is that my photos when imported to Lightroom Classic have WB settings of 6700K +7 tint. Now I can be sure all of my photos are consistent and I can be assured and safe to apply presets or copy paste settings across photos.
My other safety nets are two simple rules regarding my lens aperture and shutter speed. To no surprise, I prioritize lifting my ISO in lowlight, and speed up my shutter speed when over exposed. This is a practice i’m sure many other artists follow when in uncertain conditions. My most important one is knowing my threshold for when I am in danger of introducing motion blur and ruining my photos. Every camera operator is different. Some have very stable hands, others like me shake like a leaf. I have set a rule to myself that regardless of my lighting conditions or any other factors, I never slow my shutter speed under 1/200 of a second. If I go below this, I risk motion blur from free hand shooting. The only exception to this is tripod and remote shutter photos, or photo rollers.
My second shooting variable eliminator is keeping my aperture set to the widest opening available at the longest focal length. For example, my Tamron 18–270mm lens has a variable aperture of f/3.5–6.3. At 18mm, the widest aperture is f/3.5, but at 270mm it narrows to f/6.3. If you set your aperture wide at 18mm (f/3.5) and then zoom to 270mm, the lens automatically closes to f/6.3, which can unexpectedly darken your image. To avoid this, I set my aperture to f/6.3—the widest opening at 270mm—no matter what focal length I use. This way, the aperture doesn’t change as I zoom, and I can control exposure consistently with just ISO and shutter speed.
Image Framing
Image cropping can be annoying, and sometimes you’re chasing a flat line or a centered subject. Maybe spend an extra minute using your cameras level and tilt readout to ensure you don’t need to do any extra work to a photo or group of photos. This is especially useful for centered subjects. Look at the logo of the car, the antenna, other details and really ensure you are dead center with the car. Check the gaps on the sides, above and below to really make sure the subject is in the middle of the frame. Details like that can save lots of time in editing trying to center a subject because you were rushing. This is a developable skill, and I have put lots of time into it. Now when I shoot cars center on, the car is almost perfectly centered, flat, and level every time. I have had instances I do not touch the crop adjustment on my car because I made sure it was good on site.
