Embarrassing Editing Mistakes I Made That You Should Avoid

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While today’s lesson is a bit embarrassing for me, I love it because no matter where you are in your photography journey you can do this exercise and it is absolutely the best way to remind yourself of how much you’ve improved in your work over time. Recently I made a video highlighting just how much my work has changed over the last couple years and have found a lot of enjoyment and reassurance of just how far I’ve grown. In this video I’ll be going back to an image I edited 8 years and completely re-editing with not only what I’ve learned since then, but also how I’ve changed as a photographer.
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[@AlexArmitage]

After coming back to this image it is definitely too warm! What do you think? Have you tried this yet?

[@lindaspenard7301]

Good morning Alex 🌈 It's interesting to take a look at older work and see how much we've grown as artists. I was a little taken aback when you used the dehaze in the distance. As a painter I was taught to use atmospheric perspective as well as linear prespective to create a sense of distance by having less details, less colour saturation and cooler colour temperature. Less details because of the particles and humidity in the air. Less saturation and cooler colour because of the different wavelengths of the colours make it so that our eyes lose the ability to see certain colours the farther away an object is.

[@AlexArmitage]

Absolutely! I didn't fully take that away if you look at the final image (maybe with some fresh eyes). I like that sense of distance as well. In this case it suffers from being the brightest part of the image but also being "too hazy" in my opinion so I was trying to balance that a bit but still leave in the feeling. Maybe I over-did it in that run through of the edit

[@jimbruton9482]

Nice work Alex. Going back to possibly improve old edits has become a routine of mine and I do think they improve the edits as a result of my learning process over time. One edit I do very often is re-crop the image In the past I would tend to try to get as much as I could in the frame. Simpler compositions that are more minimal but emphasize a subject is what I prefer now.

[@AlexArmitage]

I re-crop stuff all time Jim! I have images I've never released because I still can't decide on the crop

[@mitchellmysliwiecphotography]

I can think of one of mine that would be a much more pleasing image if the edits were less heavy handed. Thanks for the inspiration to do a re-do!

[@billwinward9324]

Nothing to do with photography but your moustache is uneven! I thought you’d want to know 😂

[@AlexArmitage]

!! Maybe its the angle??? (runs to the bathroom OH GOODNESS)

[@jessejayphotography]

Everything I edit I dislike later. I am a fan of the more subtle editing form though. I would have left the haze in the distance. Adds depth and a painter would have worked hard to replicate it!

[@brianmckeever5280]

Good advice. I've been doing much the same thing the last few months.

[@hughwolfe1176]

Morning Alex, Guilty as charged, and you’re right it is a good exercise to revisit old images. I remember over editing my photos. Perhaps it’s the feeling of all the new toys in the toy box you just want to get them all out when you should leave some to discover later… Not knocking Photoshop or those that use it, but I never did become comfortable with it. I tried but it never worked for me. I had a copy of Nik software, now DxO, at the same time and just liked its simplicity better. Probably why I prefer Apple over a Windows based computer… Enjoy your videos as I always learn something.

[@AlexArmitage]

Thanks Hugh!

[@richardbellomy5607]

Great tutorial Alex....always learn something new from your editing process!!

[@AlexArmitage]

Glad to hear it Richard

[@lanceschill75]

Great exercise, Alex. Thanks

[@Chromatomic]

I don't always do this, but I should always wait a few days after editing to post, because I always go back and realized I overcooked something. The base edit of Zion was pretty decent but that internal filter for when to stop is something we all develop later 😅

[@AlexArmitage]

I have images sitting in my catalog that are years old that I still go back to and can't come to terms with posting them haha

[@kevinburke6446]

Good video. You are a brave man to go into your archives to look at your early edits. I definitely oversaturated my colors, almost to the point of being comical. But photography and editing is a journey. I'm always learning.

[@AlexArmitage]

Haha. I have plenty of "don't do what I did" :)

[@theeya89]

I was really on board with this edit until the trees have changed their color 😃 But I think it‘s a learning curve that everyone makes in editing. My first photos are way too contrasty and oversaturated. I often just went with the hue that I liked instead of what the color actually was. My editing has also “matured“ to the less is more ideology 🙂

[@AlexArmitage]

Next time Ill just turn the trees blue, just for good measure

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

Wow, these edits made a pretty big difference on the image! And the final result looks so much better than the original edit you did 8 years ago... It looks a lot more natural to me.

[@AlexArmitage]

It does!

[@owenpeller6471]

I agree Garbage images should by and large be deleted and not worked on

[@katrinawalker5160]

Maybe it's because photography is just a hobby for me, but when it comes to editing raw pics, I do the absolute minimum to them to reach the point where I feel it is a realistic representation of what I saw on the day. And this may make you laugh... I use DxO Photolab 4 and the Photoshop Elements I have had since 2006! My daughter who always has the latest updates for Lightroom and Photoshop as she needs them for work no doubt finds my inability to move onwards and upwards with editing techniques a little odd. Nevertheless, I enjoy watching your videos and those of some of the other photographers on KZbin.😄

[@AlexArmitage]

Thanks Katrina! I want to do a challenge soon where I take photos with no edits

[@mono5509]

I shall look forward to seeing how it goes.😄

[@craigmantle5362]

Definitely some good tips in here. One thing that I kind of disagree on is adding de-haze to the background. I like graduation of contrast from front to back because it adds more depth to the photo.

[@AlexArmitage]

I don't disagree Craig. I like that depth as well, but still wanted to add a bit more clarity back there in this particular example

[@craigmantle5362]

@@AlexArmitage fair enough. Honestly I was watching on my phone and I could hardly see anyways 🙃 at least it was an excuse to comment and boost the algorithm for ya.

[@Popa_Bogdan_Light_Drawing]

thank you, teacher! nice video

[@AlexArmitage]

Thank you! 😃

[@stigfloberghagenphotography]

Maybe a bit too warm. Not sure. But I think its great. Will try this because some of my old edits are way off 👍

[@lubos-ro3hy]

Great video👏

[@AlexArmitage]

Thank you! 👍

[@flyfishfotofan]

Thanks!

[@AlexArmitage]

Yo thank you so much!

[@DonDickinson-o9o]

... and, of course, I would add the right hand new edit to my catalogue any day. The old edit, not so much. I would, though, bring down the river exposure in the extreme foreground/lower edge... my eye kept going back there and stopping. Great video. I definitely learned a few tricks.

[@AlexArmitage]

Good call! I definitely am not in love with my re-edit fully. needs some fresh eyes

[@randyschwager2515]

Fun to watch and learned a few tricks! Thanks for taking me along!

[@AlexArmitage]

Glad you enjoyed it Randy :)