Pro Photographer Editing Workflow

(TIPS)
Creating images is a process and, for me, pressing the shutter is only a small part of the
journey to an image of sufficient quality to publish. In this article, part 2 to Architecture
Photographers on Holiday, I will go through my image workflow.

All photography faces the challenge of scenes with a significant dynamic range.
Landscape and architecture is really no different. I will capture as many frames as
required to cover the entire scenes dynamic range. For architecture and indoor 3 frames
are enough for most scenes. The image above required 9 images; exposures bracketed at
-2, 0 and +2 and 1 set for the lower half of the room and another for the ceiling. The
additional set is to help me eliminate people from the shot.

You really should

Shoot RAW too to retain maximum flexibility in images; we arent sports shooters
firing a constant stream of images to a desk, where JPEG is pretty much
mandatory
Keep ISO Low
Use a single white balance setting for the same set of images
Use the heaviest tripod you have and a remote shutter release, wired or otherwise

This image above, of Canary Wharf underground station, comprises 3 frames. The
challenge for this scene was getting a good exposure of the dark surrounding areas, the
bright metallic escalator and the ridiculously bright canopy. Each layer contains the
properly exposed parts of the composition.

Principal Camera

Architecture and landscape images are pretty

much covered with my 5D Mark II and 17mm TS-E Tilt-Shift lens. I shoot multiple
exposures mostly due to the front element being convex and resisting any attempts to use
filters. My bag will also always have an EF24 f/1.4 and EF50mm f/1.2. My tripod is a
little ropey now; Gitzo legs and a Manfrotto ball head.

Computer & Monitor

All image editing is undertaken on a dual CPU Mac Pro

with 24gb RAM. I frequently work with images in excess of 1GB, so a large amount of
memory is a must. I have a Dell 27 Ultrasharp monitor, which is calibrated using a
Spyder 3 Elite.

Before any significant editing session I calibrate my monitor.

Importing Images

I realise many of you will use different

mechanisms, like Lightroom, iPhoto, Picassa, etc. Call me a luddite, but I hate to
relinquish control and so my import routine is entirely manual.
On location I will be filling 2 hard drives and, on my return, will be copying across
100GB of images in a single operation, to a location I have prepared. The folder structure
on the left has served me very well for the past 10 years.
Youll notice my prepared JPEG files are prefixed with pixel sizes for various web sites;
500px is 900 pixels wide, however 1x.com is 950 pixels. I will also add bw to the file
name for monochrome images. These naming conventions make it easy to search your
hard drive for correct sized images.

Selection

Of all the numerous photo applications I have installed, day to day, I use Adobe CS5. It is
a very reliable work horse for image processing.

Image preview and selection is accomplished quickly in Bridge. I select the images I am
interested in on the right. Once happy with this, I use the filter pane on the left to
show only my final selection.

Camera Raw

If you are like me, everything on your camera is set to off or zero. Here in Adobes
Camera Raw application, I will perform a few tweaks to all the images that will go
towards a single composite image.

Ensure you are importing your images in the same color space as your camera.
Mine is Adobe RGB, a wider color gamut than the internets sRGB. Work on the
best quality image and then convert down for your target medium, like the
internet
Edit images in 16 bit
Select the best and most evenly exposed frame and set your white balance
If there are hot spots, use the Recovery slider to compenstate. TIP: Press [alt]
[cmd] together whilst moving the Recovery slider and you will see where the
hot spots are very clearly on the black background!
If youre using the recovery slider too much, compensate with the exposure slider.
Again, press [alt][cmd] together
You can use the [alt][cmd] again with the black levels bring the black levels up
to just before you start blowing the blacks
Select all the images, and Synchronize top left white balance to the other
images in the set
Open All images into Photoshop

Photoshop Tutorial
My Photoshop workspace is quite austere and my editing process is also quite simple.
I have a number of actions set up for menial tasks, like image resize, colorspace
conversion, etc. The discrete tasks I perform can be broken down as follows:

Layer blend multiple image exposures

Stitch these composite images if panoramic
Save the single composite image as a Photoshop PSD file

Use masking to select targeted regions of the image for color, contrast and
exposure control. A simple example might be to process the sky separately from
the building in the foreground
Resave this image with all the layers that have been created
Flatten the image and straighten. If necessary, crop.
sharpen
save a new version of this prepared image as a Photoshop PSD
resize for your target medium, example, 900 pixels across for 500px.com
Convert to sRGB and to 8bit
Save as a JPEG. Remember to prefix the file name with 900px for easy finding
later on

Manual Layer Blend

First, get your separate exposures into one image as layers.

You can use the menu to automate this: File > Scripts > Load Files Into A Stack [Add
Open Files]
Most Photoshop users are a little wary of masks and selections, etc, but theyre really
quite simple. I shall demonstrate!
Choose your Selection Tool of choice. I have used the Quick Selection tool, highlighted
on the very left. Press [Shift] to add to your selection and [alt] to remove from your
selection. You can see I have selected the correctly exposed canopy in Canary Wharf
Station.

This selection is very jagged and will be most visible if we dont make it more smooth
and elegant. So click on the [Refine Edge...] button, again highlighted at the top of the
above image.

The red mask area is very useful for viewing selected vs unselected, but you need to set
this option. Click on the View drop down at the top of the Refine dialogue and select
Overlay.

We will use the Refine Radius Tool brush, highlighted on

the left. It will allow us to paint the edge of the selection and Photoshop will take an
educated guess on what should and should not be selected.

Increase the size of the brush with the [Size] option and paint lavishly around the edge
of the selection. Go over all the edges!
The selection edge is far more gradated now! Press [OK] to save this selection.

We now to need to create a mask layer. A mask will will

make some of the layer image visible and other parts invisible.
Press the [Add Vector Mask] button, which is highlighted.
You can see the black and white thumbnail that has appeared next to my layer thumbnail
(below). Black is invisible. Simple as that. Anything not black will show through that
same area in the corresponding layer. In my image, the canopy mask is all white and so
only the canopy will show through. This is good, as it will leave the layer underneath
visible, apart from the canopy.

I have gone ahead and repeated the exposure layer mask for the escalator and canopy
surround, which you can see below. The layers, at 100% are too harsh, so I have reduced
the opacity of the canopy layer to 80% and the canopy surround/escalator to 70%. A little
bit of work, but a very flexible method to be able to represent wide dynamic range
scenes.

A great observation to take away from this section is the power and flexibility of layers
and masking. Its precisely how I will process color and contrast in the next section.

Flatten your exposure layers [Layer > Flatten Image] and Save as a Photoshop
document. You now have a properly exposed version of your scene. A base you can come
back to. Very useful if you want to convert to black and white later on.

Image Edit: Color and Contrast

I shall demonstrate this edit with this single capture from Kolmanskop, Namibia. I have
overlayed the processed image to illustrate the differences from RAW to processed.

If I attempted to enhance this image as a whole, it would probably be a mess and

manipulating color and contrast for one area would most definitely degrade another
portion of the image. Working on separate parts of the image makes most sense to me and
this is achieved, once again, with masking and layers.
Create layers of image sections to process using masking

Select portion of base layer

Refine Selection
Copy selection
Paste to a new layer; name it something sensible
Repeat for all sections that require separate attention

I will go through my process to apply color and contrast adjustments to the sand.

Saturation
Select the layer you are going to edit I will select the Sand layer.

Tick Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask to ensure your edit is only
applied to the Sand layer. Youll see the new layer has a little arrow pointing down to
reflect this.

I have selected a predefined

level of Increased Saturation More.
Sand should be a nice warm orange, so Ill add another adjustment layer of a Photo Filter
Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Select the Sand layer first and
remember to tick the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask option.

I have selected the Warming

Filter (85) and increased the density to 50 for a fuller effect.

Lastly, I have added a

curves layer for contrast. Select the Sand layer and, from the same menu location
Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves select Strong Contrast (RGB).

Since we have multiple layers

corresponding to Sand, I will select them all, group and them Layer > Group Layers
and apply a label.
Now I can make the toggle the Group Sand on and off to see the effect of my layer
adjustments.

TIP: To adjust
exposure by a stop, add a curve layer and set its opacity to 38%. For +1 stop, set the
Blending Mode to Screen and for -1 stop, Multiply.
All Edits done now and, by editing section by section, I have been able to control the
image quite comprehensively.

At this point save the image with all layers as a Photoshop Document.

Straighten. Crop. Sharpen. Save. Resize. Save.

Straighten

I have 2 methods.
Use the Ruler, illustrated left which is very quick once you identify the strongest line in
the image, or select all layers, then select the entire image > Edit > Transform >
Rotate.
Crop
Simple task, but difficult to undo once your image is saved. I suggest saving your image
before proceeding.
Sharpen
There are numerous discussions on the subject of sharpening and I personally have tried
them all, but the most elegant sharpening method is the High Pass filter method. The
results are sharp, but without artefacts and jaggies. Sharpening after resize is a definite
no no.

Duplicate the layer Image > Duplicate

Perform a High Pass Filter, 1.0 is a good radius for a well focused image around
10-20mp Filter > Other > High Pass
Set the Blending Layer Mode to Overlay in the Layers Palette

Save
Flatten the image Layer > Flatten Image and save as a new Photoshop File and
name accordingly.
You now have a full resolution properly edited image. When you are preparing images
for publication or competition, this is the version you will come back to to resize, save as
JPEG and distribute.
Resize
I prepare JPEG image versions for various Blogs, Flickr, 500px, 1x and competition.
They are all different sizes.
Save
The final save as a JPEG needs to be converted to sRGB and to 8 bit. These attributes are
standard for the internet. If you dont do either, your image on the internet will simply not
look, to others, the same as you processed on your computer.

Image > Mode > 8 Bits/Channel

Edit > Convert to Profile

Well here you are, this is basically my image editing workflow.

I suspect a Part 3, Pro Photographer Monochrome Conversion (TIPS), will be
forthcoming, so stay tuned!