HOW to process your colour images RIGHT. Avoid these silly MISTAKES

[@LisaFrostPhoto]

I love "feelings should be considered"! I realised many years ago that for me to have any chance of taking an image I love I needed to listen to my feelings rather than my head. What you've made me realise now is that when editing, I do tend to end up more in the thinking mind and not listening to my feelings so much. Will definitely be paying more attention to my feelings while editing in the future, thank you!

[@Alister_Benn]

Awesome. Feelings are good :-) I think that is what Art is all about...

[@bonniehoskin9212]

This was a fantastic example of editing for expression and I loved the final edit of this image. Quite inspirational. Thanks for posting!! I have purchased both e-books and am looking forward to diving into them.

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks Bonnie, I appreciate that very much - huge hugs.

[@Ruscombephotos]

This is a great video Alister. I’m so glad you’ve talked about the colour spaces. For about a year, now, the Adobe Neutral has been my go-to colour space in LR. I wish LR had the option to choose it as the default. On the forum, in relation to one of my photographs, you mentioned that shadow and hue were closely related and demonstrated in my image of backlit leaves and the shadows being cast on them by the trunk and branches and from a viewpoint of seeing the shadow from behind it. So all of what you mention in this video makes a lot of sense. I love how you title these types of videos. Before watching we’re led into thinking we must always avoid these mistakes and doing it any other way is wrong. But I know you’re not a gatekeeper, so watching and discovering your approach of demonstrating everything we do to affect colour has consequences - even in the smallest of adjustments - is really refreshing. I hope you’re well and the house is coming along nicely.

[@Alister_Benn]

Thank you so much - consequences, my favourite word in photography... Loving living out here on Lewis 0 stormy as hell today :-)

[@edc641]

This was one of the best videos I've seen in a very long time. Thank you so much for sharing! Excellent example photo. I'm very guilty of almost automatically selecting the adobe landscape profile without even thinking what it does to the photo. Many times I've found myself having to compensate for the horrible things the profile does. Stupid me, and totally unnecessary!I've just come back from a long multi-day hike in the mountains and I have many photos to process. I'll use the wise words in this video when starting working with them. Main takeaway (to me personally) from this video is to keep it simple, stay calm (like you always seem to be), think about what I want to do with each individual photo, and then start to do subtle changes with just the few sliders mentioned in this video. And then take it from there. This video actually made me happy 😃

[@Alister_Benn]

Wonderful feedback - thank you so very much

[@martinoberstein8431]

Care has been taken in producing this video. Always a joy to listen and watch. Thank you ever so much, Alister!

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks again! I always appreciate kind comments

[@mozzamhosein6476]

Wisdom in Photography at its best. Thank you.

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks buddy. I appreciate that

[@mozzamhosein6476]

@@Alister_Benn I throughly enjoy reading your books.

[@m4roadrunner]

Fascinating, I consider myself good at processing, but this quite a bomb shell. Thanks Alister 👍

[@Alister_Benn]

Happy to hear that - I appreciate the kind feedback

[@bonniepryce5031]

Perfect timing Alister! I just returned from hiking the Laugarvegur trail in Iceland and with the flat light we had, the colours in the Landmannalauger area were significantly washed out. Working hard not to produce something garrish and over saturated I found that decreasing exposure was a perfect starting point. Thank you for reinforcing that. But I hadn’t thought of neutralizing the colour profile. Great video and thank you.

[@Alister_Benn]

Ah, what an adventure, I love it up there. Glad the video was helpful :-)

[@johntaylor8938]

Really interesting and helpful, thank you Alister. I am red/green colour blind (remarkably common in men) so find adjusting individual colours to be so difficult that it is effectively a no, no. What you say gives me much more confidence in continuing to try to subtly enhance my images using the more generic tools that you suggest.

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks for that and I am pleased to hear it is helpful. I work witha. few RG colour blind people and you're right, it is a real challenge.

[@rosseagles7166]

Thank you for talking about color processing and 'the work before' color slider adjustment. Good, good.

[@Alister_Benn]

My pleasure!

[@gailmager4147]

Thank you for bringing this topic, showing the example of the photo helps. Before and after.

[@Alister_Benn]

Many thanks

[@hooroadproductions8541]

That was a great tutorial. I spent ages messing about with saturation, colours and warmth to still get an image I wasn’t happy with today. I’m looking forward to having another go at the raw file using your techniques tomorrow

[@Alister_Benn]

It is too easy to dive into colour straight away. I am really glad this video may show you an alternative approach. Interested to hear how you got on...

[@hooroadproductions8541]

@@Alister_Benn It has definitely improved the starting image to add more local colour adjustments. I will be trying this on different images going forward. Thanks again

[@Xo1ot1]

Thank you.

[@J5388T]

An excellent summary thanks Alister!

[@Juliaredlphotography]

Thank you

[@ASMPHOTO]

Thank You For sharing and keeping me straight.

[@Alister_Benn]

You are most welcome

[@garymc8956]

Very instructive.

[@keithspangler4814]

Hi Alister, enjoyed this video a lot. I just returned from a bicycle tour in western Canada and Montana that tested my photography and now. my post editing skills. The wildfires there really impacted the ability to shoot and edit the mountain scenes. My images lacked contrast and clarity and color the further away from the camera the subject got. I was challenged with making them come to life. I think I was successful, but.... I'd love to hear your fixes for this challenge. Respectively, Keith

[@Alister_Benn]

Thanks Keith, yeah, I hear the wild fires have been terrible again this year! Devastating for those communities.

[@philpetrie]

Excellent Alister

[@Alister_Benn]

Cheers, thanks for that

[@Drew-photo]

Thank you, this is very interesting and delivered fantastically As I am only starting my lightroom journey ... As it is the edit that I have struggled with

[@Alister_Benn]

Awesome. Vlad it was helpful

[@bamsemh1]

If you use s-rgb colors in camera and use Canon or Sony, then be sure to start with saturation -10.!

[@johnclarke1319]

right ( adjective?) surely correctly! is correct.

[@guykerr8111]

Thanks for the enlightenment, always helpful. Would the fact you are going to print this have an effect on the process? I have not spent anytime on printing photos so it is very new concept for me.

[@Alister_Benn]

Printing does have a huge impact on how an image could be processed, it I’d say for me at least those adjustments come way after creative choices I make on how I want an image to look. Soft proofing an image for print on paper is a whole different ballgame and is a science unto itself

[@guykerr8111]

@@Alister_Benn Thank you.

[@jerryhutchinson2543]

Excellent video!

[@stewartlogie]

Very good demonstration of the effects of contrast and luminance on colour. I would add that the subject of colour can be confusing and that you may consider elaborating on the basic terms in a future video. There is an Adobe colour space ( a gamut) but you were using those words to describe a profile. My understanding of a profile is that it is processing performed on the raw data “before sliders”. A preset is a record of the sliders. I was confused between profiles and presets for quite some time - maybe I still am! As in your video, I often choose a flat profile to allow me greater control. Sometimes the histogram may convince you that your highlights are blown, but if you switch to a neutral profile you get more room to fashion those highlights.

[@Alister_Benn]

Great point mate, a great topic fopr a future video... Hope you're well...

[@eastbaystreet1242]

Alister, as much as I enjoy your videos (I am watching this), I think your position here is too rigid. You can go listen to your comments about being too punchy or vivid and imagine Rembrandt making those very comments about Matisse or Van Gogh. You can imagine DaVinci making the same remarks about Chagall. All of these choices of impact, strength, opacity, color and so on have to be considered in the context of the creator's vision. Having said all of that, this is the first time I have disagreed with you and I hope our precious internet relationship will remain as special as it was before. :-)

[@Alister_Benn]

I am 100% ok with disagreement. I would like to take the stand that saturation, punch, contrast and clarity when applied with artistic, creative and aesthetic intent are perfectly valid avenues of expression. My concern (and observation after being involved in the contemporary photography scene) is that when these things are the result of lack of care, or following social media trends, they lose some of their validity. I would be interested in hearing from your average Joe photographer about how much "intent" they have when following someone esles top tips recipe for "process like a pro" ;-)

[@eastbaystreet1242]

@@Alister_Benn That is always the rub - it is tricky. It's sort of like in music (I notice your lovely Fender in the background). It is rare that someone can begin their professional career with an "unplugged", simple acoustic guitar and soft, nuanced singing. Usually, they have to start out big and loud, and only later are allowed to return to their more soulful roots. Sort of the "everything is crap, until it isn't" problem. Can't you just hear folks saying to Joe Cocker early in his career, "you can't sing like that!" The artist must own (be committed to) her or his artistic statement. I am not a very good photographer, but I enjoy my B&W as well as my color work, which is more like Chagall than Rembrandt. So, I agree with you that following the easy/standard approach is the least artistic/meaningful approach. I watch a lot of KZbin and find that, as with all other informational inputs in life, I take bits here and there. I didn't start playing guitar 'til age 58, so very few of my KZbin guitar influencers are anywhere near my age. Sometimes I get great ideas from folks 1/3 my age. And BTW, I adore playing the guitar now (though I have always been involved in music and currently have a studio/barn outside of Nashville for fun - not profit). Well, I have digressed a lot. If you make it to music city lets have a pint and share stories. And thanks for putting yourself out there on KZbin!