In the initial Real Estate blog, I talked about the fact that all digital images need some type of “tweaking” to make them “pop”. Original digital images, generally, are not perfect by any means. Of course, this is, as I said before, a very subjective issue.
Most people would never look at a digital image and think…the levels, contrast, composition, etc. were off, but to the discerning, professional eye, these issues tend to be a blaring issue. To set oneself from the rest, these issues should become a focus of interest and understanding. It’s like reading a trilogy of books from halfway through the first book. There is a foundation that must be identified and understood.
Some basic issues that need to be addressed for most images are levels, composition/cropping (hopefully not too much), perspective compensation, burning and dodging. Others include saturation, color balance, the stamp tool (in Photoshop), copying, pasting and more. Their are as many techniques needed as ther are “problems” to be solved. The tools and techniques vary from image to image depending on the needs. I execute basic Photoshop techniques for every image I shoot and have spent a couple of hours on an image if needed. I work on each image as though IT will be the one image that makes a difference in my career. I’m anal in that way. Don’t get me wrong….some images don’t need hours of work, but if I feel it does…I give it.
By getting use to executing these tools with every image, your work will look better than most of the work out there. Most photographers and companies just don’t take the time too make every image sing. It’s all about money for them. For me, it’s all about pride. For every hour I shoot, I’ll spend two hours in Photoshop. This is a service that I include with all of my clients work and it pays off. They can’t put their finger on it…my photography just looks better than everyone else’s.
My advise would be to get acquainted with these fundamentals and start incorporating them into your images. You can start slow…but by the time you use one a hundred times and get used to it…you’ll go to the next one. After a while, you’ll have an arsenal at your disposal. On my next blog, I’ll get more into the detail of my thinking process as I edit images.
