on editing
When I shoot, I save both RAW and JPEG. Every now and then, the JPEG is rendered just perfectly, other times I need to use Lightroom to rescue a shot.
Lightroom's Auto
button is a good starting point. Most RAW images look flat, like they're covered in gauze. The Dehaze
slider goes a long way towards fixing the RAW image, a bump of +10 to +20 can fill in shadows nicely.
If my horizon is off, I can use the Level
button under Transform.
I set the camera to Auto White Balance and don't change the White Balance option in Lightroom from "as shot".
Most of my images are published online, I will scale down to 1920 pixels wide and render at 72DPI. Most of my prints are on the small side, maybe 14" diagonally.
Sometimes I get lucky and the image doesn't require editing right out of the camera:
I tend not to use filters unless I'm sharing something with family or friends:
Sharpening is a difficult decision, some images benefit from being sharpened on screen to bring out smaller details like people in the distance.
For real estate-style images, I bring up the exposure for a clean, well-lit look.
I will shamelessly crop my images.
Next post: Tech