A RAW workflow & learning post processing tools

A RAW workflow can be a very personal thing. Depends on what works for you and gets you to your end goals.
I have personally found that a non-destructive RAW workflow allows you to experiment more. Push things around and see what becomes of them.
The basics of course are good exposure, good color, good B&W conversion, good work flow not work slow, good output, etc. Certainly OK to find what you can do in post and see what comes of your images. How do you know you have gone far enough until you have gone too far and pull back a little?

Take things one at a time I say. Few people can sit down and master the entire process in a few days. Assignments help you shoot, edit and output with focus. Personal challenges can help you attain your goals. Find photos you really want your photos to look like, a style you would like to attain, and push yourself there. Look to subject matter for inspiration and look for great light or make great light to help you get to your goals. That all helps you in post.

If you are constantly trying to fix photos in post, or keep trying things to get them to “pop” it can improve your shooting too. Not every dirt clod has a hidden gem inside, but drab to fab can be within reach sometimes in post processing. Each new thing learned and grasped is another rung on the learning curve ladder. Sometimes it is what you can do in post that makes a photo sing, sometimes it is what you bring into the processing tools that matters most. Often it is both.

Post processing is a very real and needed step for many, many photographers. I know very few that nail every shot right from the camera and meet all their creative goals with what they see on the back of the LCD.
You have to know what your limitations are, what holds you back the most, how to spend some time in those areas and keep reaching for where you want to be. It is daunting to look at it all at once. Put in the time, one thing at a time.

Often it is just a few “a-ha” moments that pull things together and you are onto the next level. Sometimes you just cannot get past a roadblock and have to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask questions too. Tutorials and lessons often teach you how to use a tool, but not always when to use a tool.

A RAW workflow can be a very different beast. I often hear “my photos don’t look sharp” or “the color is not the same as I saw in camera” and these and many more things are all easily overcame once you understand a few things.
I have never used PSE 6 but know many that are totally happy with it. I have been using Photoshop since version 2 and will never master that software, it is too deep, but I can make it do everything I need it to do and as fast as I can do it.

Nik, Topaz, OnOne, AlienSkin all make great tools! But I personally find them to be seasoning in the stew, icing on the cake, dessert at the end of a full meal. I personally have never found any/all of them to be needed for all my work. They all add something, but for me not for every image. You have to evaluate what they do for you, how they increase your access to tools, how they get you to your goals, how they impact your work flow (time and energy too). All those tools come with trials.
Tip: Install a trial software when you have contiguous days to play with it and understand it. Installing a 15 day trial and not having time until day 14 to mess with it does not get you a good sense of what it can do for you.

Or course it also depends on how much time you have to devote to shooting, how much time you have to devote to editing, how you mix the two and how many photos you have to edit and who you are editing your photos for. Like I said at the opening, it is a very personal thing.

• Look at and study 1,000 images, then 10,000, then 100,000 – that really helps you see as well as improve your photography
• Print your own work – that really confirms you are nailing it, or you have some work to do
• Ask questions of other photographers “how did you do that?”
• Why did that tool help, when did it help, and when should I use it?
• You have total control over the entire process, from setting up the gear, clicking the shutter and outputting the final image – that is a lot of control. Take it one step at a time
• Spend a day, a week, a month, a year, a lifetime on getting something right
• Shoot with other photographers, learn, share, absorb, communicate
• Join a photography club
• Take a workshop
• Critique other people’s work, it really helps you confirm what you like in photography and you don’t
• Get your work seriously critiqued
• Online training is always available, especially when you just want to learn a few things you are stuck on, or watch an entire series on a subject you need to learn about
• Hang out and contribute to forums, ask questions, learn and share

The way I shoot, I am capturing as well as I can in-camera, intending it to be as final as possible when I click the shutter, but at the same time I am harvesting all the shots I will need to complete my vision in post too, as there are limitations in-camera.

-Landon