Photography is widely known to be a one-step process of shoot and forget, because this is what most do with their iPhones on a daily basis. But in the higher realm of professional photography, which you will soon start finding yourself increasingly in, photography is a 3-step process - Pre-production, Production and Post-production.

The Pre-production phase encapsulates preparing for what you will be shooting. This includes setting your gear, checking the location of your shoot and planning the particulars of your shoot. Granted this is more of an industry approach to photography, but it certainly can help you even in your day-to-day shooting.

Production is all about the actual shooting. This includes setting the lights, your camera and other aspects of your shoot to successfully capture your vision.

And post-production? Allow me to elaborate:

The Power of Post-Production 💪

Post-production, street term "editing", is the carefully planned manipulation of a photo from your camera using an editing software, to either enhance existing aspects of the photo, or completely alter aspects to create a different final photo compared to what was captured. The process of editing encompasses several key elements:

• Image Selection: As a professional, you will take many shots. But not all those shots will be worthy of saving forever. Only choose the images that are well exposed and framed to save yourself time from editing too many images.

• Raw Conversion: Raw files provide the maximum amount of data captured by the camera sensor. Your editing software will allow you to edit these images with greater precision, while allowing you to save them to any file extension once editing is done.

• Color Correction: This step involves making adjustments to the white balance, exposure, contrast, and saturation to ensure that the colors and exposure look as natural as possible, which helps accurately present your vision.

• Cropping and Composition: Shooting RAW gives you the opportunity to crop into your photos during post-production, without losing image quality. This allows you to refine composition by repositioning elements within the frame to enhance the visual impact of the image.

• Retouching and Enhancement: Post-production tools in most editing softwares enable professionals to remove blemishes, distractions, or imperfections to enhance and further emphasize your subject / vision.

• Creative Editing: Once your image looks as close to reality as possible, you can now begin to creatively edit the image by color grading, adding filters, and experimenting with textures or overlays to induce a specific aesthetic / mood.

The Integration of Post-Production ☯️

• Technical Precision: In today's high-resolution digital photography, post-production is essential for achieving technical precision. It allows for precise adjustments that might be challenging or impossible to achieve in-camera.

• Creative Expression: Post-production tools provide you with a platform for creative expression. It's where you can add your unique touches to make your work distinctive and memorable.

• Consistency: Post-production ensures consistency in your body of work. By applying similar editing techniques to a series of images, you create a cohesive portfolio or tell a consistent visual story.

• Adaptation to Light Conditions: Lighting during a shoot may not always be ideal. Post-production allows you to salvage images by adjusting exposure and contrast to recover images and make them usable.

• Correction and Refinement: Post-production is an invaluable process that allows you to correct imperfections and refine images through various tools, ensuring that the final result aligns with your vision.

The Ethics of Post-Production ✅

While post-production is a powerful and necessary step in professional photography, it raises ethical considerations. Excessive retouching and manipulation distorts reality and undermines the authenticity of an image, which is why it is always advisable to use the editing process to strike a balance between enhancing your image's appeal and maintaining its integrity. Besides, AI can deliver far better on fantasy imagery in a matter of seconds, compared to the hours wasted at your computer over-editing to achieve such a goal. Remember to never lose sight of reality, and always aim to showcase subjects in their true form for deep appreciation from your viewers.

In Summary 🥂

Post-production is not a substitute for skilled photography but a complementary aspect that enhances the creative process. Editing is rightly regarded as the modern digital darkroom, where photographers refine and polish their work to match their vision. When used thoughtfully and ethically, post-production elevates photography from a mere snapshot to a work of art, telling stories that resonate with viewers and leaving a lasting impact.