Only show your best | Critical skills for the digital photographer

I run into a fair number of “pro” photographers and usually strike up a conversation at some point about camera gear, who they shoot for, etc. I’m always surprised when I meet a pro that doesn’t seem to have a grasp on their digital workflow. And there’s more than you might think. That’s not to say that’s its easy to learn, but I’m shocked that its not seen as important to some.

For me, capturing the shot is only the beginning of the process to creating an image. Post-production is just as necessary as focusing, composing and exposing the shot correctly. It’s a skill you have to learn. That doesn’t mean I spend hours or days immersed in the bottomless toolbox of Photoshop. I’m just talking about basic color correction and RAW conversion. I personally never show an unprocessed RAW file to anyone if I don’t have to. It’s like holding up a negative to the light and asking them to imagine with you the photograph you intended. In my opinion, a RAW file is never ready to be shown to anybody because its not finished yet.

It’s true that many magazines want only the RAW file sent to them for publication. This makes sense as most publishers have their own digital workflow parameters and work the within those to get the best results for printing etc. They know their process better than I do. But that’s not how I would present my portfolio or show shots on my website. I want to show only my best work as a finished product. What do you do with the images that aren’t sent out for publication? I have to do the RAW conversions and understand the process. I'm no expert, but my understanding of post processing has made me better at managing the exposure when capturing the image in camera. For those who started shooting film and now shoot digital, this is particularly important to understand because the way to expose slide film is not the same as exposing for digital. Here’s a great article on How to Expose for RAW from Digital Photo Pro. click to view

It took me a while to figure it out but thanks to a variety of sources, and a need to take control of my images, I feel like I have a good understanding of RAW conversion in Apple’s Aperture and the most useful photography related tools in Adobe Photoshop. I’ve owned countless books on Photoshop from the Idiot’s Guides to the books meant to certify me as an expert. None of these worked for me, way too technical, complicated and not aimed specifically at photography.

Photoshop is a vast creative toolbox; there are countless tools and a seemingly infinite number of ways to accomplish the same thing. It’s very confusing if all you need to do is color correct a photograph. It’s like, if all you need is a screwdriver and they give you the entire Home Depot. Luckily, I stumbled upon some great resources eventually that gave me what I needed: practical information for photographers. My list of favorites and links are below.

• Scott Kelby’s series of Photoshop books absolutely helped me turn the corner with color correction, sharpening etc. Buy one; it’s hands down the best and updated for all new versions.
  
• Digital Photo Pro magazine
  
• Apple’s online tutorials for Aperture are very well done. I watch them every once in a while and I always end up learning something new.
  
• YouTube and Google always end up with some good information, hopefully my little contribution to the sea of information will help as well. 
  

In a follow up post, I'll outline my workflow in Apple's Aperture that keeps everything streamlined, organized and most importantly allows me to show only my best shots in a relatively small amount of time.