Developing a consistent and manageable workflow is an important part of advancing as a photographer. Personally, I like to spend as little time behind the computer as possible, and more time creating ideas or photographing. I know some people who love to sit down and plug away on a photo for 45 minutes or more, but I’m not one of them.

My own workflow and post production is very much still a work in progress. It’s something I’m constantly refining and I don’t profess to have it where I want it yet. In fact it’s likely my biggest weakness. However, since a few people have asked me to share I thought I’d put together this post on what I’m doing now. Because I consider my style clean and natural, all of it is geared toward simple touch-ups.

The first step after a photo shoot is to import all my images into Lightroom. I’ve played around a bit with Capture One as well, but Lightroom is my preferred choice for the moment. It’s a particularly easy to use and sort program and I definitely recommend it, even (perhaps especially) before purchasing Photoshop. On import, I keyword all the photos for future sorting, usually with at least the model’s name, agency they’re from, the client and a few project descriptions. I automatically apply an import setting for my camera which includes copyright information and a few settings, pretty much the default camera neutral with a slight bit of higher contrast added in. I like to start from a very basic slate and then adjust where necessary per image.

The first photo below is what an image will generally look like when I first import it into Lightroom. While ok on its own, there’s a few things to correct and I sometimes like to punch it up a bit more. I always check the histogram of each photo to see where blown highlights or black clippings may be. The giant blown hotspot on camera left is generally considered a no-no, but let’s skip that part for now. My first step is to make any minor exposure and white balance corrections that are needed. This is usually quick and can be copied across a set of multiple images if each is off say 1/10th to 1/3rd a stop.

For this photo, I added in a bit of recovery to reclaim some of the blown highlights and boosted the black levels pretty high (I believe around 25) to punch up those colors and take away some of the natural wash in the photo. I then added a bit more fill to take away some of that black while brightening the photo a tad, and uped the exposure just a bit. The black clipping is a bit strong in this photo, but I felt the light justified an extra bit of punch. What I like to do is make sure there are no empty edges on the histogram, bringing the black point up if needed so the bottom of the histogram meets the edge, or the exposure up if its short. These are really things you should be looking out for while taking the photo though to unsure you’re not over or underexposing the photo.

If you’re looking for a simple, “this is what you do to get a good photo,” you’re just not going to find it. Each image will require its own minor adjustments. The key is to trust what the histogram is telling you, and to follow the KISS principle. Learn to get it right in camera and you’ll always spend less time in front of the computer.

After going through a shoot set, deleting the photos I don’t like, applying a color selection to the ones I do for a second look and finally starring my favorites, I send to Photoshop. The only thing I will use Photoshop for is to occasionally remove a distracting background item and to clean up minor skin spots. Then I’ll sharpen and the image is ready to go.

Hope this is helpful. As I mentioned I like to keep my post-production very simple and fast. It’s really about getting it right in camera first and then making any minor adjustments you need.