Today’s Question: Concerning your presentations on “Perfecting Basic Tone and Color” and “Advanced Color Adjustments”, do you actually go through all the adjustments for every image from a specific photo shoot? Or do you perform this deep dive only for the best images from an outing?
Tim’s Quick Answer: No. I only apply the adjustments that I feel an image would benefit from, which means there are often plenty of adjustments that I skip. I also only apply adjustments to images that I intend to share, or where I want to get a better sense of the full potential of the image.
More Detail: When it comes to optimizing my photos, even in the specific context of tonal and color adjustments, I don’t feel the need to apply every available adjustment to every image. I’m selective about which images I spend time optimizing, and I only apply the adjustments that I feel will improve the impact of the photo.
For example, if I don’t mark a photo as a favorite, it will probably never get adjusted (unless I change my mind about a photo later, which does happen from time to time). I only spend time optimizing photos that I feel have some degree of potential, and even then I mostly only optimize photos that I’m going to share in some way. Of course, sometimes I optimize photos that I don’t necessarily intend to share, such as to explore the potential of an image based on improving it with adjustments.
There are certainly adjustments that I will use on pretty much every photo I ever work on. That includes adjustments like Whites, Blacks, Highlights, and Shadows, along with favorites such as Vibrance and Clarity. But there are also adjustments that I don’t use very often, such as Color Mixer or Color Grading. Don’t get me wrong, those are two incredibly powerful and helpful adjustments, but not every image needs that degree of refinement. Sometimes, for example, I’m happy with the overall color simply by adjusting White Balance, Tint, Vibrance, and Saturation, without needing to fine-tune the color in specific portions of the photo.
I think this can be one of the more challenging aspects of optimizing photos. It can be relatively easy to learn how the adjustments work, for example, but potentially more challenging to decide which adjustments to use for specific photos. I’ll be addressing this type of issue in an upcoming presentation in my Ultimate Live Learning series.
