I think I prefer James' style here, myself, but it's also different subjects. Love the bright but natural look. Kind of overexposed film looking. @@VTeixex
I love how this video is an example of how different tastes lead to different styles. I completely disagree with nearly everything you say here because this kind of editing would look horrible with my images. But with your style it totally flows. People often wonder how they develop their own style and this is it! Just do what appeals to you and eventually you will produce unique looking work.
I thought you copy pasted a comment I made on a separate video! I personally love adding a smidge on clarity (+5) and then use a luminance mask to add a bit of bloom. Best of both!
Your editing is refreshing with so many people trying to wring every last drop of contrast and sharpness they can out of an image. I fall into that trap too. So many people I watch go way overboard in post and it's nice to see someone with a different style showing their thinking. Thanks James, always interesting videos.
Месяц назад+16
This is probably the most concise and clearest video on editing I think I’ve ever watched. Thank you and keep them coming!
Shadows.... I totally agree. Best advice I ever got was to embrace the shadows! Shadows simplify a scene, hide distractions, and often give a sense of mystery (because you can wonder what is in the shadows). I think people get impressed with the dynamic range of their good new camera and feel like they should raise them... and rarely does it actually improve the photo.
This video is excellent. I've learned more from you in 15 minutes than I have anywhere else in the 5 years I've been interested in photography. Great work!
It's the eye catching contrast and such, because often people pull the shadows and the highlights and all they have left is clarity to add midtone contrast.. I don't like that look. It was the typical "Sony" look for a good while because of the dimension range boost over Canon at the time.
That tip on clarity is so simple yet I’ve never tried decreasing clarify. Felt to me like reducing sharpness. Thanks! Going to try this on all my photos immediately.
As a landscape photographer I tend to lessen the contrast the deeper into the image I go. For example, I won't use a linear gradient. Instead I'll maybe sharpen the foreground then move deeper into the photo and create a mask specifically for say, a line of hills. Then after that there may be a mountain and I'll create a mask specifically for it and so on. It can be a lot of work but I think it tends to create a more realistic effect than just a single gradient . Great video James. That snowman is you.
This is excellent! Although far from being a beginner it's certainly making me rethink many aspects of my editing. Would love to see more of this topic.
I love how this just shows that we all have different approaches to editing and that's valid. We all just have certain styles and preferences when it comes to creative outputs. I would still keep all of these in mind cuz I can see myself implementing these styles and techniques as well in certain situations.
Interesting insight, fascinating how we all use the same tools differently. I am often a heavy editor myself, I wonder if in time we will all strip it back to be less shiny. Your video mentioning "fatigue of bright packaging" has always stuck with me.
You’re the best. I was literally just watching your previous Vietnam video and was wondering about the bloom/haze effect myself and now you’re covering this already. Awesome! Love it when the Matrix plays out.
I've personally found that slapping on a mist filter and using a tweaked film simulation jpeg straight from my fuji has done wonders for my photos. They are as sharp as they need to be, while still having that nostalgic feel that you get from a photo that you found while dusting out the storeroom in your house.
Shoutout to James and his team that helped deliver the Human Nature book; I got mine in the mail a few days ago, and it was treated a bit like a football. Nevertheless, y'all sent out a replacement book the very next day when I reached out about it. Love the videos, great vibes.
The one time where I do find myself using the clarity to improve an image is with some food photography. It can help bring out some details in different food items.
I am not on my own when I say how valuable the information that you have just given us is so important to the finished picture! I am not the best editor of pictures and that's why I try and get everything right in camera when taking the picture but that is not always possible, Thank you so much for the info, now for some re editing of my pictures......
Incredible knowledge in this one, the contrast decreasing with distance part at the end blew my mind. Such a simple thing, but makes a huge impact. Thanks for sharing!
Not a huge fan or your editing style but I have learned a lot from your editing videos. Which really is huge compliment to how well you teach - making me take the concepts you use and adapt them to my own editing.
Hmm. Negative clarity…. Is that why I like low contrast vintage lenses? I’ve never gone beyond 20-30% clarity but now you’ve got me wondering if I give it too much respect. Also totally love what you say about shadows. People get too obsessed with not blowing highlights and shadows. Both have elements of mystery within. Good video!
Brilliant James ! This will be tremendously helpful in my (very amateur) image editing. Also….having looked backed at your videos through the years I swapped my Canon DSLR gear for a Lumix G9, a 12-35mm and a 45-150 mm and am absolutely loving using them - thanks again.
Thank you for explaining everything so simply and in such an easy way to understand. I would love a video from you about what each slider in Lightroom does and how you typically use them to achieve your style!
I like the style of your photo’s and for a long time I wondered how you achieve that atmosphere. Thank you for explaining, and I ‘ll start experimenting with lower clarity, contrast and saturation.
There are definitely situations where positive clarity looks good. I often use it to make reflections clearer, but you definitely want to avoid overdoing it.
Enjoyed this, entertaining, informative and an inspiration to try some different editing approaches. It is also refreshing to see an established photographer taking a relatively straightforward approach, and *assuring others that it's absolutely OK to do so* - as opposed to the more commonly encountered guru suggestion that a 7th Dan Black Belt in Masking and Layers is an absolute must for any and all editing work!
Totally with you on “positive Clarity” there are so many ways to increase contrast and some folks actually use many of them, not sure why? I’ve always enjoyed how you correctly expose your images and I think you are one of the very best photo editors on RUclips, it’s very obvious to me you really know your stuff! 👏😀👍 Ps people should realise also that sharpness should decrease as we go further into an image just like contrast as you mentioned!
Editing is where I've needed to upskill but it can be touch to search for the right thing to start learning. This video really helped me a TONNE. Thank you for actually explaining what some of the sliders actually do and effect. I need to have these as notes to reference everytime I'm editing now XD
Very interesting. Your editing gives you your style and your vision on photography. But luckily, everyone is searching for his/her own style and vision. That’s what art in general is all about. Each artist can say: welcome to my world.
Interesting episode on the topic of editing. I would agree with your observation on positive clarity. It ruins shots quickly if you either are not paying attention or overapply it
Super interesting, I went back and re-edited a few of my favorite photos and compared them with your style of editing and I really liked how some came out.
Good --- Great steady sensible advice for those with less experience. Your sharpening comment : spot on imo; made to be too important to sell programs. Bit like cameras pixels . I still use Lr5 that I actually own 🥳 One thing I would add is Edit the photo >Put it away for a time >Revisit the photo and edit more with a fresh mind and fresher eyes > Put it away > edit again ........... . Doesn't really matter when Cyberspace actually sees the photo for a few minutes or even a few seconds and a printed will likely be far better . Certainly good no BS advice
Thx for those pretty useful tips! Somewhat off topic: I‘ve literally just received your book. It‘s awesome! Following your channel for quite a while I know most of the pictures, but seeing them sequenced and printed is something else. BTW: excellent quality of the print!
Excellent in many ways: the way the subject was handled, presentation, video quality with MINIMAL time talking-heads introduction. Liked the point about reducing clarity and less contrast ar distance Thanks! (new subscriber) .
Absolutely sooo helpful especially the luminance and sharpening 👍 P. S The book is one of my favourite photo books, it's super inspirational and thank you, spotted my name in there, which made me smile 👍😊
Honestly the contrast tip should be so obvious after a lifetime of observing the world around you. At some level you know it, but to have someone simply explain it, it makes me feel stupid for not actively thinking about it more!
Holler this way if ever come back to Vietnam, Lived here for 10+ years, probably could take you around to few places "not known", I think we would have a cool time. (and totally agree on clarity!!) Great series of all your images from here.
Very interesting insights - thanks for sharing! Would be great if you could explain your approach and thought process behind lifting the the black point and shadows in the curve in one of your next videos.
I tend to not like editing videos because they tend to be very generalized and not helpful at all. ""Bring up the shadows and bring down the highlights ... blah blah blah!" But there are two photographers I always enjoy editing videos from, you James and Mads PI! You two could not have any more different styles but I love them both and I appreciate bot of your editing vids. Most photographers talk about local versus global adjustments and so many photographs I see look like cut out collages or everything in the photo has an oval halo/vignette around it ... 😆 ... so anyway thank you for doing a realistic albeit slanted towards your taste/style editing video. I don't necessarily want to copy your style but it is super interesting knowing what you do to bring out your style and therefore your techniques can be futzed with to get something that is closer to my style (that is assuming I had a style 😂)!
James! I'll confess: I saw the topic, and I was thinking "ho hum" (my mood, nothing to do with you) but I'm only at 2 minutes and you made that comment about the Clarity starting at zero and ONLY going left. HOLY CATS. You're so right. I watched the rest. I appreciate you.
I enjoyed that. Several differences to my own routine, clearly explained with just the right amount of detail. I'm really looking forward to finding out which ideas will work out for my photos. I particularly like your thoughts about handling greens, the trickiest colour of the lot - and probably also the trickiest vegetable as you will no doubt soon be discovering. 😁 Always good to be shown new routes through the Adobe jungle. Thanks!
I’ve been shooting professionally for years, and for fun my whole life - somehow I’ve never touched the masking slider 😅 thank you so much, it’s going to be helpful
My question to add into the mix: what monitor do you use for your editing? And did you calibrate it with any particular device after getting it and/or what specifications did you consider when buying your monitor? I'm just really curious - not only because of the visual quality of your images in your video - but also since you've done prints/books as well, how the quality of your monitor plays into that. (Also, it's one of the few things not listed on your "Gear" page)
Thanks James. I'm having a bit of trouble being able to toggle on and off all the different things that have been applied to the edit. Often I find myself doing an edit and then being unable to get off of that effect and go to something new.
It's refreshing to hear somebody say they don't like added clarity. It drives me bonkers when I see it used excessively in "professional" images. I always think it makes an image look "dirty"
Thanks for the video, James. I actually find that I edit quite similarly to you, but I sometimes do use positive clarity if it fits the image, no more than +10 though ;D The Human Nature book arrived yesterday, I didn't manage to get all the way through yesterday, but I did today. Incredible work! I hope that I can one day fill a book like this with work that I am proud of.
I just finally realized on my own that reducing Clarity improves my photos after like 4 years lol. I guess I was stuck in the beginner feeling that the sharper everything was, the better.
The clearest editing video I’ve seen from a photographer whose work I actually like 👏
For real, some gold here. James and Simon d'Entremont are my go to for Lightroom.
I think I prefer James' style here, myself, but it's also different subjects. Love the bright but natural look. Kind of overexposed film looking. @@VTeixex
@@mikafoxx2717 style notwithstanding, Simon's Lightroom tutorials are excellent
@@VTeixexYeah, Simon is great. He has mentioned James a couple times in his videos already
True!!
I wonder if that fisherman could ever imagine thousands of photographers staring intently at his face on RUclips while he busily prepared his boat.
I love how this video is an example of how different tastes lead to different styles. I completely disagree with nearly everything you say here because this kind of editing would look horrible with my images. But with your style it totally flows. People often wonder how they develop their own style and this is it! Just do what appeals to you and eventually you will produce unique looking work.
I thought you copy pasted a comment I made on a separate video! I personally love adding a smidge on clarity (+5) and then use a luminance mask to add a bit of bloom. Best of both!
I was so frustrated you weren’t removing the dust spot in the corner. Then I realised it was my TV. Yep, my kids have clearly thrown something at it.
Your editing is refreshing with so many people trying to wring every last drop of contrast and sharpness they can out of an image. I fall into that trap too. So many people I watch go way overboard in post and it's nice to see someone with a different style showing their thinking. Thanks James, always interesting videos.
This is probably the most concise and clearest video on editing I think I’ve ever watched. Thank you and keep them coming!
Shadows.... I totally agree. Best advice I ever got was to embrace the shadows! Shadows simplify a scene, hide distractions, and often give a sense of mystery (because you can wonder what is in the shadows). I think people get impressed with the dynamic range of their good new camera and feel like they should raise them... and rarely does it actually improve the photo.
Depends on the photo
One of the best photography related videos I have ever watched.
Came here for more, excellent, James knowledge. Stayed for the Snowman Sticker.
The snowman sticker is perfection.
This video is excellent. I've learned more from you in 15 minutes than I have anywhere else in the 5 years I've been interested in photography.
Great work!
Once again, loads of value here from James.
The luminance and contrast comments were brilliant to know and really help shape an image.
Once again thanks for the insight! Knowing about negative clarity is really a gift. Dont know why I 'upped' the clarity in the beginning
It's the eye catching contrast and such, because often people pull the shadows and the highlights and all they have left is clarity to add midtone contrast.. I don't like that look. It was the typical "Sony" look for a good while because of the dimension range boost over Canon at the time.
That tip on clarity is so simple yet I’ve never tried decreasing clarify. Felt to me like reducing sharpness. Thanks! Going to try this on all my photos immediately.
I can't believe this content is free! Thank you very much!
For my work, I add Clarity to racing cars photos or B&W portraits. And many more subjects as macro and urbex for example.
As a landscape photographer I tend to lessen the contrast the deeper into the image I go. For example, I won't use a linear gradient. Instead I'll maybe sharpen the foreground then move deeper into the photo and create a mask specifically for say, a line of hills. Then after that there may be a mountain and I'll create a mask specifically for it and so on. It can be a lot of work but I think it tends to create a more realistic effect than just a single gradient . Great video James. That snowman is you.
This is excellent! Although far from being a beginner it's certainly making me rethink many aspects of my editing. Would love to see more of this topic.
I love how this just shows that we all have different approaches to editing and that's valid. We all just have certain styles and preferences when it comes to creative outputs. I would still keep all of these in mind cuz I can see myself implementing these styles and techniques as well in certain situations.
Interesting insight, fascinating how we all use the same tools differently. I am often a heavy editor myself, I wonder if in time we will all strip it back to be less shiny. Your video mentioning "fatigue of bright packaging" has always stuck with me.
You’re the best. I was literally just watching your previous Vietnam video and was wondering about the bloom/haze effect myself and now you’re covering this already. Awesome! Love it when the Matrix plays out.
I've personally found that slapping on a mist filter and using a tweaked film simulation jpeg straight from my fuji has done wonders for my photos. They are as sharp as they need to be, while still having that nostalgic feel that you get from a photo that you found while dusting out the storeroom in your house.
You are so right about saturation. Especially the greens are often made too yellow and lack any subtlety.
Such a useful video! Would really find more of these in the future a massive help. Thank you!
I think this was the best video about editing I've ever seen! Thanks James!
I’ve been shooting and editing for like 8 years now, thought my editing wasn’t half bad and I learned so many little tidbits from this. Great video!
That was the best explanation of sharpening I've ever heard. Thank you!
Shoutout to James and his team that helped deliver the Human Nature book; I got mine in the mail a few days ago, and it was treated a bit like a football. Nevertheless, y'all sent out a replacement book the very next day when I reached out about it. Love the videos, great vibes.
Totally agree on the clarity! Most people tend to boost contrast, texture and clarity by default.
The one time where I do find myself using the clarity to improve an image is with some food photography. It can help bring out some details in different food items.
Straight to the point with no BS. Loved it, especially the bit about sharpening and masking. Thanks James.
I am not on my own when I say how valuable the information that you have just given us is so important to the finished picture! I am not the best editor of pictures and that's why I try and get everything right in camera when taking the picture but that is not always possible, Thank you so much for the info, now for some re editing of my pictures......
I like your take on sharpening and “noise” (real or imagined)
My own workflow is often mask>sharpening>lower blacks>denoise (if still necessary)
Very well done, explained & presented. Please more of this once and a while
Incredible knowledge in this one, the contrast decreasing with distance part at the end blew my mind. Such a simple thing, but makes a huge impact. Thanks for sharing!
Bought the full pack of presets, not because i'll use them (not a fan of presets) but to contribute towards your hard work :) Keep it up sir!
Not a huge fan or your editing style but I have learned a lot from your editing videos. Which really is huge compliment to how well you teach - making me take the concepts you use and adapt them to my own editing.
Wow these are things I’ve never even thought of when editing super helpful, particularly the foreground being more contrasty than the background…!
Thank you for your time!
Hmm. Negative clarity…. Is that why I like low contrast vintage lenses? I’ve never gone beyond 20-30% clarity but now you’ve got me wondering if I give it too much respect. Also totally love what you say about shadows. People get too obsessed with not blowing highlights and shadows. Both have elements of mystery within. Good video!
i think that positive clarity sometimes produce a good image. Different people different taste. But still loving your photographic style!!
Brilliant James ! This will be tremendously helpful in my (very amateur) image editing. Also….having looked backed at your videos through the years I swapped my Canon DSLR gear for a Lumix G9, a 12-35mm and a 45-150 mm and am absolutely loving using them - thanks again.
Thank you for explaining everything so simply and in such an easy way to understand. I would love a video from you about what each slider in Lightroom does and how you typically use them to achieve your style!
I like the style of your photo’s and for a long time I wondered how you achieve that atmosphere. Thank you for explaining, and I ‘ll start experimenting with lower clarity, contrast and saturation.
There are definitely situations where positive clarity looks good. I often use it to make reflections clearer, but you definitely want to avoid overdoing it.
Enjoyed this, entertaining, informative and an inspiration to try some different editing approaches.
It is also refreshing to see an established photographer taking a relatively straightforward approach, and *assuring others that it's absolutely OK to do so* - as opposed to the more commonly encountered guru suggestion that a 7th Dan Black Belt in Masking and Layers is an absolute must for any and all editing work!
Totally with you on “positive Clarity” there are so many ways to increase contrast and some folks actually use many of them, not sure why? I’ve always enjoyed how you correctly expose your images and I think you are one of the very best photo editors on RUclips, it’s very obvious to me you really know your stuff! 👏😀👍 Ps people should realise also that sharpness should decrease as we go further into an image just like contrast as you mentioned!
Editing is where I've needed to upskill but it can be touch to search for the right thing to start learning. This video really helped me a TONNE. Thank you for actually explaining what some of the sliders actually do and effect. I need to have these as notes to reference everytime I'm editing now XD
Really, really good point about contrast at different depths - never really thought about it but it makes a lot of sense!
Well done. Finally, a photographer that makes it simple. Thank you for this. Lots of good tips here.
That was MASSIVELY helpful, James. I'd take it's my fav video of the year. Now. onwards!
Very interesting. Your editing gives you your style and your vision on photography. But luckily, everyone is searching for his/her own style and vision. That’s what art in general is all about. Each artist can say: welcome to my world.
Interesting episode on the topic of editing. I would agree with your observation on positive clarity. It ruins shots quickly if you either are not paying attention or overapply it
Super interesting, I went back and re-edited a few of my favorite photos and compared them with your style of editing and I really liked how some came out.
Good --- Great steady sensible advice for those with less experience.
Your sharpening comment : spot on imo; made to be too important to sell programs. Bit like cameras pixels . I still use Lr5 that I actually own 🥳
One thing I would add is Edit the photo >Put it away for a time >Revisit the photo and edit more with a fresh mind and fresher eyes > Put it away > edit again ........... . Doesn't really matter when Cyberspace actually sees the photo for a few minutes or even a few seconds and a printed will likely be far better .
Certainly good no BS advice
Thx for those pretty useful tips! Somewhat off topic: I‘ve literally just received your book. It‘s awesome! Following your channel for quite a while I know most of the pictures, but seeing them sequenced and printed is something else. BTW: excellent quality of the print!
Excellent in many ways: the way the subject was handled, presentation, video quality with MINIMAL time talking-heads introduction. Liked the point about reducing clarity and less contrast ar distance Thanks! (new subscriber)
.
Your Human Nature book arrived here in Australia yesterday. What an awesome collection of images. Thanks for producing this!
This was super wonderful and very helpful. I feel like I leveled up my editing knowledge by a ton. Thanks!
you haven't talked about this, but 15:05 is yet another example of how you split up those reds yellows and greens which is very powerful.
Absolutely sooo helpful especially the luminance and sharpening 👍 P. S The book is one of my favourite photo books, it's super inspirational and thank you, spotted my name in there, which made me smile 👍😊
I didnt know about the masking feature in the sharpness effect!! Thanks 🙏
Excellent topic and content. I truly appreciate your style of walking us through your thoughts. Thank you.
Honestly the contrast tip should be so obvious after a lifetime of observing the world around you. At some level you know it, but to have someone simply explain it, it makes me feel stupid for not actively thinking about it more!
Holler this way if ever come back to Vietnam, Lived here for 10+ years, probably could take you around to few places "not known", I think we would have a cool time. (and totally agree on clarity!!) Great series of all your images from here.
Very interesting insights - thanks for sharing! Would be great if you could explain your approach and thought process behind lifting the the black point and shadows in the curve in one of your next videos.
I tend to not like editing videos because they tend to be very generalized and not helpful at all. ""Bring up the shadows and bring down the highlights ... blah blah blah!" But there are two photographers I always enjoy editing videos from, you James and Mads PI! You two could not have any more different styles but I love them both and I appreciate bot of your editing vids.
Most photographers talk about local versus global adjustments and so many photographs I see look like cut out collages or everything in the photo has an oval halo/vignette around it ... 😆 ... so anyway thank you for doing a realistic albeit slanted towards your taste/style editing video. I don't necessarily want to copy your style but it is super interesting knowing what you do to bring out your style and therefore your techniques can be futzed with to get something that is closer to my style (that is assuming I had a style 😂)!
Thanks for the video, James. That was helpful!
I'd really like to see a video where you edit a few pictures from RAW to finished result.
This is an exemple of perfect editing tutorial ! Thanks a lot James
Thankgoodnees you were not in pain at the start! Tx very informative!
James! I'll confess: I saw the topic, and I was thinking "ho hum" (my mood, nothing to do with you) but I'm only at 2 minutes and you made that comment about the Clarity starting at zero and ONLY going left. HOLY CATS. You're so right.
I watched the rest. I appreciate you.
One of your best posts. Worth repeated viewings. Thank you.
James, I love you and your work. You are a delight!
I enjoyed that. Several differences to my own routine, clearly explained with just the right amount of detail. I'm really looking forward to finding out which ideas will work out for my photos. I particularly like your thoughts about handling greens, the trickiest colour of the lot - and probably also the trickiest vegetable as you will no doubt soon be discovering. 😁 Always good to be shown new routes through the Adobe jungle. Thanks!
I’ve been shooting professionally for years, and for fun my whole life - somehow I’ve never touched the masking slider 😅 thank you so much, it’s going to be helpful
Your video is PACKED with useful content and no distractions (other than a 3-year old...)
Brilliant video James, Im looking at taking on photography inspired by you and Roman Fox. Inspiring work by both of you. Thanks for the great content.
amazing tip regarding the contrast and masking! will definitely be applying to my future edits - thank you!
I did not expect to learn anything, but I did! This is a very useful video!
Hi James,
Very interresting, especially when it was about luminance.
Thank you.
My question to add into the mix: what monitor do you use for your editing? And did you calibrate it with any particular device after getting it and/or what specifications did you consider when buying your monitor?
I'm just really curious - not only because of the visual quality of your images in your video - but also since you've done prints/books as well, how the quality of your monitor plays into that. (Also, it's one of the few things not listed on your "Gear" page)
Thankful for your information this morning
Thanks James. I'm having a bit of trouble being able to toggle on and off all the different things that have been applied to the edit. Often I find myself doing an edit and then being unable to get off of that effect and go to something new.
Really useful and applicable tips, thx James!
I've been wanting this video!
Great video and explanation. Would love more of these!
Sorry James, but that last photo looks so much better with the dramatic ocean.
love you James. keep up the great work.
this is amazing!! can you do another video going deeper into luminance settings?
Very good explanation! Love your work!
It's refreshing to hear somebody say they don't like added clarity. It drives me bonkers when I see it used excessively in "professional" images. I always think it makes an image look "dirty"
Thanks for the video, James. I actually find that I edit quite similarly to you, but I sometimes do use positive clarity if it fits the image, no more than +10 though ;D
The Human Nature book arrived yesterday, I didn't manage to get all the way through yesterday, but I did today. Incredible work! I hope that I can one day fill a book like this with work that I am proud of.
Can I like a video twice? This video is so incredibly helpful thank you very much
Great video! Love the part about contrast. Thanks for sharing.
Unreal insights in this video mate, can’t thank you enough. Also loving my copy of Human Nature
I just finally realized on my own that reducing Clarity improves my photos after like 4 years lol. I guess I was stuck in the beginner feeling that the sharper everything was, the better.
Great vid once again. I’d love to see/hear you thoughts about monitor selection and set up
This was so incredibly helpful!!! Many thanks😊
Really excellent video. I learnt a lot. Thank you