Post-processing, before and after

The Elegant Photographer. Denver, Colorado, 2012

This is a before and after comparison of the same image so you can see what post-processing might add to your photograph.

The “Before” (on the left, obviously) is the JPEG that came from the camera based on my relatively neutral picture control menu settings. If all you work with is JPEG, you could choose more vivid colors, more sharpening, etc. to amp up the in-camera processing of your JPEGs (as Ken Rockwell is fond of doing) and, perhaps, avoid a lot of post-processing. If you shoot a lot of images and post-processing is impractical, that might be your best bet.

For my purposes, though, I tend to like to contol the process by “developing” a RAW image in Lightroom/Photoshop. I tweaked the “After” image initially in Lightroom, adjusting the exposure, adding some contrast and some sharpening. In Photoshop I straightened the image, cropped it, cloned out the North Face logo on the coat, then sent it into one of my favorite plug-ins for monochrome conversion–Nik Silver Efex Pro.

In Silver Efex, I used one of the presets, Full Contrast & Structure, to bring out more of the fine detail, and I also added a slight vignette. Before leaving Silver Efex I used their proprietary adjustment method (Control Points) to reduce the preset’s effect on the face and hands (it would have been a bit unnatural). Once back in Photoshop, I added just a bit more contrast and a very slight amount of sharpening. I think there is definitely a bit of difference between the initial capture and the final image–maybe proof of the importance of post-processing?

I really like the Nik plug-ins, especially Silver Efex Pro, but I’ll talk about them another time. I still need to see how the Nik issue is going to play out as the company was recently purchased by Google and it remains to be seen whether Nik will continue to make viable tools for more serious photographers or if they will move toward more emphasis on photography apps for smaller mobile devices.