AVOID These PHOTO EDITING MISTAKES | Lessons from 10 Years of Landscape Photography

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Today, I review my photos from 10 years ago, and riff on the mistakes I made, so you can avoid them.
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#LandscapePhotography #PhotoEditing

[@DaveMorrow]

Free Camera Technique PDFs: www.davemorrowphotography.com/free-pdfs

[@tonybeale3334]

Thank you, Dave. Very interesting - as always!

[@serkespj]

It would be interesting to see you re-edit these old photos to your current work flow with a side by side comparison! Maybe a a future video. Keep up the great works.

[@DaveMorrow]

Good idea!

[@RFranks]

If you look back a year or two and are not so happy with your older images it's probably a good sign - it means you're improving!

[@SandraBassin]

I love that first photo! Years ago when you were selling your photos, I bought this one and it hangs over my fireplace today.

[@scotty4418]

Think we can all relate to this video Dave and got those "Man what was I thinking of" images. HDR and Lightroom presets are also another of those face palm images I have too but as you say, it's part of the learning process. Key learning for me taken from your premium tutorial series is to work on small incremental changes, use colour harmony to balance the image and as you said don't rush to finish and publish. Based on your workflow, I set up an 'Awaiting Review' folder and leave images there to cool down for a bit and then give then a final review before completing my workflow process. Out in the field I have tried to think more about the end image as I plan my composition and decide what i want to include and exclude and to take my time. Great to listen to this Dave and to share your earlier experiences

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

Watching this again after a year, I see even more strongly the need to set edits aside and come back later with fresh eyes. When I do, I keep reducing saturation and clarity more and more as time goes by.

[@scottlawrancephotography5938]

Thanks Dave.Allways very informative.

[@paulkay8986]

Great video and really like those candid observations. Must admit, I look back just one year and feel like I've progressed from taking just a picture to an image that really captures the mood. Like a lot of things in life (but not everything!) less is often more as you so rightly say...

[@deanhenthorn8674]

Fist of all I appreciate you honest self critique - its how we improve. Also as Peter Serkes said down below. If you would edit one or two of the shots you critique to show what you would do now, that would be great.

[@LarryManiccia]

Your reactions to some of your older shots and how you trash talked some them was pretty funny. Looks like your high levels of expectation have paid off over the last 10 yrs. Your images have definitely improved pretty dramatically. I think looking back is definitely a good way to learn and hone your craft as you move forward with your photography. That and reviewing other photographers work and identifying the strengths are powerful tools for sure.

[@colinshawhan8590]

Sounds like the advice we often hear elsewhere, in music and real estate: Location, Location, Location - don't shoot a dumpster! Less is More Composition is Key I like what you said about processing 80%. I like "flagging" photos out of my main folder then editing those. I'll stick them in a folder, unflag them. Then I will go bag and flag the ones I like, edit that group. And editing-wise I try and do about 75:25% down:up adjustments be it brightness, saturation, etc. If I want a brighter sky, pull the luminance of the trees down a bit. Can I achieve what I want by gently darkening or de-saturating something else? Then a slight *blip* upward on one color goes a lot further. And I find myself using the histogram a lot more. This reminds me a lot of music production. An example where production absolutely trashed an album is Metallica, "...And Justice for All." It just sounds like you have your head in a garbage can being beaten on my a gorilla. It's easy to do the same with photography.

[@joycecook1904]

Dave, I found it informative for you to show us exactly what you were critical of in your photos. Without your focused examples, I would never have seen them. I also appreciate learning about your workflow, like editing in bits over time and then holding in a folder for about a month. Thank you

[@heavenscape]

Most the images shown in this video are EXCELLENT and I won't call those imperfections "mistakes". I believe your critics to those issues are more likely to be related to the evolution of your own personal aesthetic and philosophy about photography instead of any real problem with those images. Photography, like most arts, are very subjective and, a lot of times, irrational. If you look at the history of the fashion industry, you will know what I mean. I believe you should be very proud of yourself for having come this far, and every step you took in the progress is your personal wealth that no one can take away.

[@shimmeringreflection]

Awesome, thanks. Will look up your Dave Morrow, Color Theory guide. Exactly the gap in my knowledge I need to fill

[@TheRicas1]

Another good video Dave!

[@ewanmackenzie6777]

Wow David, after watching this video, I went to your website and looked at your gallery of images, You are doing some amazing work now, very inspirational, keep up the great work.

[@DaveMorrow]

Thanks Ewan! Trying to constantly improve. Long process:)

[@ikomuc6430]

Hi Dave, as always, a great video. I've been following you for about 1.5 now and your videos have greatly improved my photography. Funny that I'm not the only one who has made similar "mistakes". Like you said. It's a learning process and you just have to try it out to get better. There is no such thing as perfection. The most important thing is to have fun with it. The rest comes by itself.

[@MitchellCoyle]

Thanks for the tips dude!

[@davidd337]

"This one is an absolute mess" - lol. I say that a lot when I look at some of my earlier photos. Thanks for sharing this.

[@DaveMorrow]

haha. Anytime. Thanks for watching.

[@FelixJorgenfelt]

After looking at this video I had to look through my own images. One of the things that I found is that I can improve my color work a lot. While I have taken a huge leap in working with luminosity, color haven't gotten the attention it needs. So, thank you for showing me, even if in an indirect way, what I need to work on to improve.

[@naturenutproject]

I wish my images now were as good as your "bad" ones from 10 years ago... ha! But definitely enlightening and helpful to remind myself that it is a process and won't happen overnight!

[@federicofloresmoy8385]

It is an excellent video, to make a retrospective analysis after several years mainly when one started in photography and see the progress that one has had in the shooting and post-editing, is another way to improve as a photographer, leaving us in this video, the importance in the exposure of light, more natural colours and not exaggerate in the clarity and improve the composition, who throw the first stone those who have not had these problems at the beginning. Thank you Dave. Take care. Stay safe.

[@kevincupp2673]

Thank you Dave! You have given me a new a fresh approach to use when critiquing my own work, thank you very much

[@kimsegal9723]

Dave, thanks lots here. First, your garbage, my "Wow could I do that!!??" :) Perspective. Its interesting to know how your 'vision of natural' is trained after so many outdoor experiences. The 'eye' that you have developed is a talent and skill in itself. For me, perhaps for many of us.. the ability to truly understand the essence of natural presentation and editing is a bit of a mystery and crap shoot. Whole 'other' level of looking you have. :) Good to know.

[@tor-arnepaulsen2556]

Congratulations on 10 years of landscape photography. last week i was looking at my pics from 10 years back. also started with nature photography 10 years ago. you have probably come further than me. but the journey is perhaps the most important. still thank you for sharing and teaching!!

[@11book53]

Thank you Dave for sharing the information on your 10 years ago photos! A timely addition to my KZbin subscription!

[@mfuller1093]

Thanks Dave for sharing your early mistakes so many of my first 18 months of shots were just like that, it takes awhile to stop being hyper and shoot and process calmly.

[@Cad1900]

Great shots most of those could be easily corrected. Not every shot we take is going to win awards we must crawl before we run. Thank you for the video it’s interesting 🙏

[@eduardofernandez529]

excellent, excellent, excellent!!!! My 2nd most favorite after I learned from you how to use back button focus (now my standard)

[@paulburgess5111]

Dave, You're freakin great man.

[@DaveMorrow]

Thanks Paul. I appreciate that.

[@mattc2674]

Hey Dave, great video! How about a video or two where you critique our images?

[@bluejay3945]

Holy crap, Dave, I was expecting total crap from yours description but they were generally awesome. Editing is tough but even at your earliest you can see you were going for a look. I think you have now validated yourself and are a wealth of knowledge. In your current mindset, do you tend to leave the color and saturation until last? I guess the question is that as you move forward do you see color and saturation as your emphasis or are there other aspects? In terms of composition I feel you have it locked down and I appreciate how you look for scenes within a scene. That is a vision of yours I am constantly trying to hone

[@steveadkins5881]

Awesome. Your videos and how-to guides have really helped me out. I'm still learning but having a blast. Thanks a lot.

[@vaamorais]

Hey Dave, great retrospective video. I think you were a bit harsh on yourself in the sense that I wouldn't call mistakes some aspects you mentioned, like composition or subject matter - I would call it natural learning evolution and like you said after a while of walking the most breathtaking natural landscapes, one become very selective on what and when you take the camera out. Thanks for sharing

[@mibreit-photo]

I certainly have such images hidden away somewhere on my hard-drive ;-) I think I did a video last year about my first landscape trip and the photos I took there. It's quite interesting going back 10 years and looking at the beginnings

[@drubber007]

Over saturating is a classic mistake when you are first starting out. I feel the same way you do Dave when looking back at my captures from 10 years ago.

[@aassra]

I like your video a lot, we started photography at the same time..same age. I disagree with you in shooting for the sun..I recently fall into it and my photos become Alive!

[@mikeholland721]

Thank you so much, it gives me hope.

[@wesleylow3632]

Thank you Dave. This was both revealing and embarrassing for me as I see how I've done so much wrong. I really appreciate your insight. Just a fun little thing, when your background color matches your beanie, it looks as though you have a cone head. lol. Keep up the great work. PS Albert Bierstadt is also my favorite!

[@Hike-it]

This is a real killer! LOL.Great video & advice man. Takes me back to some of my favorite times of photography.

[@travelingtricia]

Wow you are so much fun! Thanks for this video; great tips once again.

[@DaveMorrow]

Thans Patricia:)

[@DiegoTerzano]

Good advice on the images David. It would be interesting to see what you would consider a good portfolio image today to see how they compare to to those images and server as a benchmark when you decide to review your work again in the future. Best Regards!

[@jasonmordecai8212]

09-10 I was also big on saturation in images and I’ve got some I thought were bangers but looking now hurt my eyes. I was also big on HDR too and didn’t know how light hit properly so I just made stuff that didn’t need to be bright, bright because I thought it looked “cool” Anyways I use some of your techniques now with my own twist of course and I get much pleasing results that are much more natural. Thanks Dave 😉

[@Pat-1000]

Thanks very much once again Dave 2 thumbs man

[@CBQMusic]

I would not call the story that I am going to tell a mistake, but definitely it is a limitation early on. When I started, I edited my photos in a cheap laptop. The hardware was good enough, and I liked how my photos looked. Then I bought a new laptop, and when I transferred my photos over, they just looked awful! I'm talking about the same final jpg file, viewed on two different laptops. I realized that the old laptop's screen was garbage, but I did not have any way to know before my new laptop came. After I re-edited and posted a few of my photos, I remember one fellow photographer telling me "how she liked the way I edit my photos now". Nowadays, I have a factory calibrated external monitor that claims 98%sRGB coverage. It won't be good for mission critical print work (which I don't do), but I trust the colors a lot more to this monitor. Thanks to it, I discovered that my current laptop's screen has a noticeable yellow color cast. Not ugly, but I don't trust image editing to my laptop's screen anymore. I don't think the solution is to tell the novice photographer to go buy the best monitor money can get (which might be a highly contested topic anyway), but definitely the quality of the screen can be very misleading.

[@bfs5113]

IMO, it isn't your laptop, but not doing a calibration of your monitor. I still do both with my monitors and printers today as in the past. Back then when I did my first calibration, I was still using CRT and dual processor desktop with 10,000 rpm SCSI HD. Also, depending on one's room lighting condition, the ability to monitor and adjust by improved color calibration device also helps.

[@tdsmulders]

Hi Dave, very good to hear your commenting your own photos. To make your learning curve even more understandable, is it an option to show us two pictures. EG your Iceland picture when you started with editing and one years later based on your actual knowledge. Thanks for all, Tom

[@andykennerley8159]

Thanks for the the advice iam just starting out in taking photos 👍📸🇬🇧

[@DaveMorrow]

No problem 👍

[@travellingtwo_6787]

Great video, really interesting 😊👍

[@m.bauer2024]

These "try hard" compositions looks like from my folder. Nice to know that I need just 8 more years :D

[@DaveMorrow]

Could probably do it faster than I did:)

[@chemclimber]

That house looks like every travel brochure 😂😂 it just goes to show that quality of light makes so much difference. Your photos now are many levels above these

[@guykerr8111]

Not mistakes.....learning opportunities!

[@Stillfilm1]

An interesting and brave video Dave. But don't you think that styles and trends change over time? If you look back at various Flickr streams from 10 years ago they were full of over-saturated and even garish HDR images and it's hard as a photographer to resist following trends when they are the ones we see all the time and that get the "likes" or whatever. Don't beat yourself up about it, but as you say, we are learning all the time.

[@robatkin7580]

I was hoping you would re-edit the photos and show what you would do now. Great video though. Thank You.

[@harlanthomas6405]

Good video Dave, I am thinking about purchasing Topaz labs sharpening software any thoughts?

[@direhavok8732]

What made you switch from Canon to Nikon?

[@unniedolls]

Where can we find your newest photos?

[@DaveMorrow]

Linked under all my videos:)

[@summit12275]

Hi Dave, Ed here. Do you ever use grad's or ND filters on bright sky to control blow-out or bracket your exposures ? To match the 'minds eye' (human hdr) so to speak. thanks again

[@matssandquist9258]

When looking to some of the photographs on Instagram I wonder if people are colorblind or what. Some of them are really over saturated and to much color. I have seen so many colors in the sky on Instagram which I didn´t know they excisted and the odd thing is that they get many likes.

[@cmichaelhaugh8517]

Yup, just like mine. Except that I have not gotten to your current level yet.

[@dougwelch5049]

Good review. Like the comment less is more, and only slight saturation.

[@gyanrosling2226]

Dave made me realize how bad all my photos are 😂

[@DaveMorrow]

keep shooting they get better

[@alexcruz9442]

Dave Morrow once said. So that's another nice.... ugly photo.