Let me introduce my photo editing system that not only saved me an enormous amount of time editing, it also made my photography more consistent.
Essentially, this system helped me develop and establish my personal style.
I know it can help you as well.
It all started a few years ago when photography became my main source of income and the number of photos I was taking increased exponentially. I was drowning in a sea of digital files!
As a travel photographer, I found myself in a situation where I didn’t have enough time to travel because I spent too much time in front of the computer. That was my main motivation for creating a more simplified and streamlined editing workflow.
In Search of a Solution
I spent the next 18 months optimizing my workflow.
When I started analyzing the way I take and edit photos, I noticed certain patterns. I recognized that the way I take pictures directly affects the way I process photos in Lightroom.
For example, when shooting landscapes and cityscapes, I always set the exposure for the highlights (sky) that results in underexposed foreground shadow areas. Then, as I begin editing, I start by:
- opening up the shadows
- recovering details in the highlights
- adding a graduated filter to the sky area
- boosting contrast and clarity
- increase the saturation and vibrance
- the increase in vibrance usually results in an oversaturated sky so I only desaturate the blue hues
- I also ensure that the vegetation in my photos is not electric green by shifting the green hues toward the yellow spectrum
- in the final steps, I add vignetting, increase sharpening and reduce noise
Though these steps soon became second nature, it also meant that I performed anywhere from 20 to 30 identical adjustments to every edited photo.
I realized that 80% of my editing steps were identical for every photo. Only 20% of my efforts were spent on what really mattered: making every photo unique.
I also recognized that if I could automate that 80%, then I could drastically reduce the time I spent in front of the computer.
I dug deep into my photo archives and selected the photos that best reflected my personal style.
The next step was to leverage one of the most useful and interesting functionalities of Lightroom – the preset creation. I created my own Lightroom presets based on the selected photos.
Initially, I completed the Landscape Collection by creating and polishing 20 Lightroom Presets. Every preset covered different scenarios of the way I edit landscape photos that also reflected my personal style.
But, there was still a problem in paradise.
Presets do not work out of the box
You probably noticed that it is rare that you apply one of the presets to a photo and are happy with the final results. You still have to dive deep into the Lightroom editing tools. You still have to compensate for the level of exposure, lighting conditions, shadows and the dynamic range of the scene.
I was determined to eliminate, or at least minimize, fiddling around with endless Lightroom editing tools.
This is when the idea of two levels of presets was born.
The Breakthrough
I separated my Lightroom presets into two categories:
Style Presets. The presets that define the “LOOK” and style of the photograph. For example: cool or warm, cross processed or natural, contrasted or soft.
Adjustment Presets. The presets that allow fine-tuning of a photo without altering the style and without the use of Lightroom editing tools. I named them the ToolKit.
This is how my workflow looked after I implemented the two level preset system:
First, I applied one of the Style Presets. Then, I used the Adjustment Presets from the ToolKit to fine tune the image.
Simple, effective and automated.
The Lightroom Rapid Editing System was ready for prime time.
Now, it is time for the demonstration.