What I Am Working On: Revisiting Old Photos

This post touches on a few things that I think are important to consider when it comes to post-processing. The first is that as you gain more experience, your editing skills and knowledge base will improve. Because I think this is true, I would argue this is a reason you should keep one original file in its best available format of most of your photos. This is an example of this:

ISO 160 f/5.6 1/500sec 135mm

This was shot in October 2011. Not only was my Canon 50D relatively new to me, it was also my first DSLR, had a kit lens, and my knowledge of photo editing software was just in its infancy.

The photo was shot in the RAW format though, which means there is a lot of information in the file, I just needed to learn how to extract it. Now, almost a decade later, I know right off the bat there are at least three simple starting point fixes. The first is adjusting the white balance using the eyedropper tool. The second is to increase the exposure and lighten the shadows. Here is a screenshot with those edits in place:

This shows the white balance and shadows edits.

Another thing I have learned about photo editing is that it really does open up a lot of possibilities and it’s often fun to play around and come up with something that is both creative and still aesthetically pleasing. In this case, I made a black and white image of a subject that is more frequently shown in color and I also created a custom crop:

ISO 160 f/5.6 1/500sec 135mm

Neither of these changes would work on every photo I edit, but I would argue that they do work here. I’m glad I kept this file all those years. Your thoughts and comments are welcome below.

Added to CBWC, Flight.

Cheers!