I’ve been back and forth between Kelowna and the Thompson Okanagan a lot in the past few weeks. Every time I’ve been coming back I have a photo where I edit it naturally (as I do) and it doesn’t sit well with me. Then, the other day I was listening to a video by Alister Benn that talked about how during post-processing it is our opportunity to convey what we were feeling or a feeling through our edits. Thus, in todays episode I wanted to take you through a set of photos that I recently took on my last trip to the Thompson Okanagan where I edited them differently than I typically would. We also do an editing experiment together in an attempt to turn a photo that I took on my first trip to the Thompson Okanagan into something that sits better with me.
Summer Foliage - Dark and Poppy
My typical post-processing workflow includes keeping everything fairly natural to the eye, but I really wanted to make my summer foliage dark and poppy because I wanted to emphasize in many cases the light hitting the foliage and the lush, green-ness of the Thompson Okanagan.
The three in particular I wanted to chat about were these three:
In all these photos I intentionally darkened my shadows and blacks to make the background really “dark”, in order to make my summer foliage “pop”.
In some cases I used the Graduated Filter to create further emphasis.
Editing Experiment - Loon Photo
The photo we’re going to experiment with is this Loon photo that I took on my first trip to the Thompson Okanagan. I was on the boat with my dad when this Loon family swam by us.
When I edited this photo “naturally” like I usually do it didn’t sit well with me. It wasn’t until a week later that a thought dawned on me that maybe black and white would fit the image better.
Below on the left is a “unedited/raw” photo, the photo in the centre is a “natural edit” and the one on the right is a “black and white” edit.
I’ve become pretty mechanical with my editing workflow, always striving for natural edits to deliver consistency. However, expressing the moment, the feeling I was having when I took the photo and the feeling I want to convey changes.
It’s fun to experiment and I hope this inspires you to experiment with your editing!
Happy Photographing!
Beautifully Wander | Robynne Ikesaka