Post-production doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, the best post-production is usually very simple. It is also very rare for there to be an app or a technique that will fix every photograph the way you want it fixed! So the art of post-production is very much a matter of collecting lots of ideas, tools and processes and then seeing what works in a particular situation. 

The majority of my photos are edited with curves and hue/saturation adjustments in Photoshop; or in Lightroom and Capture One, I'm using the exposure, contrast, tonal and saturation sliders - which are effectively doing the same thing. Importantly, my edits aren't only to the whole image at once. After I have the image roughly right 'globally', I then fine-tune the image section by section, area by area. I'm using 'selections' and 'masks' to make adjustments to different parts of the image. And this is the key to most editing. We're not stuck with what the camera provides us - as long as we have the best quality pixels possible!

Within these tutorials are instructions on how I use some common tools, like levels and curves, and some less common tools like 32-bit processing and L*a*b* Color. I don't expect you to view them all at once - or to use them all. This is section is designed as a resource so it there's something you need to do, chances are I can help you here!

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  32-Bit Processing (Part 1) What is 32-bit processing and why would you want to use it? 32-bit processing gives you access to a broader range…

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  32-Bit Processing (Part 2) After viewing Part 1 you'll understand what 32-bit processing is all about. In Part 2, you can see one example of how…

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  3D Lut Creator When you get into editing colour, you may find changes you want to make don't seem to be possible with the colour…

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  B&W Conversions Unless we're using an achromatic sensor, our files are always colour, so how do we convert them into black and white? There are…

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  Blacks We're told we need a good distribution of tones to make a beautiful photograph - and this is true in most cases. However, even…

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  Blend Modes - Part 1 If you edit with Photoshop, you have access to blend modes within the layers panel, but what exactly are blend…

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  Blend Modes - Part 2 There are a number of popular Photoshop techniques that are based on blend modes. While many of them have been…

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  Blend Modes - Part 3 Blend modes can be useful for both creative and practical editing. For instance, you can create a beautiful soft focus…

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  Clarity If you're looking for a quick and cheerful way to give your image a little more punch and presence, clarity can do it, but…

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  Curve Problems If you've attended a Dr Les Walkling workshop on Photoshop, he'll explain to you why Photoshop has some major problems with the way…

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  Curves Although you mightn't realise it, most of the editing we do is based on curves, but using an easier interface with sliders! However, using…

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  Filing How do you file your photographs? On a hard drive or in the cloud, of course, but what type of folder structure do you…

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  L*a*b* Color You know what an RGB file is all about (red, green, blue). Well, there's another colour model that does things a little differently…

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  Levels If you're struggling with curves a little, start with levels. In the levels dialog there are just three sliders to play with and you'll…

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  Linear Curves Photographers who claim to love using their photos 'straight out of the camera' should start with a linear cuve - as it is…

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  Luminosity Masking When we first think of making a mask, it's usually of a subject, like a tree or a person. Luminosity masking doesn't look…

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  Monitors Instead of buying a new camera or lens, should you be buying a better monitor? In digital photography, no device is more important than…

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  Raw Processing If you're working in Lightroom or Capture One, the fact you're processing a raw file is no longer obvious. Even if you open…

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  Selections and Masking There's a good chance much of this tutorial will be thankfully out of date as AI masking and selecting improves - and…

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  Selective Colour Our first choices when adjusting colours in Photoshop are usually a Hue/Saturation or Colour Balance adjustment layer and while they essentially do a…

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  Shape, Sparkle & Pop Towards the end of the editing process, I often find my images have lost some of their original tonality and look…

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  Sharpening - Part 1 The first question to ask yourself is, do you actually need to sharpen your photos, or are they quite sharp enough?…

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  Sharpening - Part 2 Okay, so we've decided we need to apply a little sharpening to our photos - how do we do it? In…

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  Vignetting I have been known for heavy vignetting in the past - it was a style used in the darkroom that I carried over into…

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  White Balance White balance. Colour balance. Colour cast. Sometimes an intentional colour cast is exactly what we want, while on other occasions a natural colour…