goldengod Photography Blog

Avoid Over-Processing by Cleansing Your Visual Palate

September 1, 2007 @ 2:04 pm · Filed under Advanced Photography Tips, Digital Photography

Photographers need to recalibrate their senses frequently, like most other creative professionals. Writers often take breaks between editing passes and sound engineers use ‘neutral mix’ recordings to bring their hearing back to neutral.

Recalibrating Eyes…

Photographers need to cleanse their visual palate when doing post-production. Stepping away from the computer and going for a walk or any other activity is the simplest way to do this.

Going for a walk for every photo I edit would be a hassle, though. Instead, I process photos in bursts and step away from the computer every five photos or so. This is similar to the technique of letting photos sit I wrote about yesterday, but on a smaller scale.

Please Use Eye Washing Station

You don’t need to abandon the photos for days, just give your eyes a quick ‘wash’ by looking at other things. Keeping a copy of the original photo open in another window as a reference image is also very helpful. You can use this to ensure that you’re not oversaturating things too heavily.

People who forget to do this are the ones who post red-skinned portraits (guilty) and the overdone, tacky HDR shots. Don’t become HDR Harry. Please.

Next time you’re processing photos, try this out. You’ll find it much easier to capture subtle effects in colour and tone, which people receive better than an HDR hammer to the head.

EDIT: The image previously associated with this post as it has been removed. It was brought to my attention that the person posting it on Flickr was not the rightsholder to the image. The poster listed someone else’s copyrighted work as Creative Commons and added it to the Flickr repository, where I found it. At the time, there was no indication that this was someone else’s work but the Flickr listing has been updated since. My sincerest apologies to the hardworking photographer Lew Robertson (warning: tacky flash usage).


10 Comments

  1. Brian Auer Said,

    September 4, 2007 @ 12:23 am

    I’ve noticed this same phenomenon too. It never fails — you step away, come back, and find that you’ve overdone it again. I find that going outside and looking at real colors for a little while really helps.

  2. Andrew Ferguson Said,

    September 4, 2007 @ 2:30 pm

    Agreed, taking a look at things outside in natural light helps move your brain out of the space where we compensate for strange lighting.

    I used to try and do this by spending time in different rooms in my apartment, until it dawned on me that my living space is a nightmare for light. I have mostly tungsten, with large east-facing windows in every room letting in daylight, and fluorescent in two rooms.

    I’m thinking of making some attempt at standardizing my lighting, making it easier to take photos in my home, and writing about it.

  3. Tim Solley Said,

    September 5, 2007 @ 2:08 pm

    You normal eyed people make me so jealous. My eyes were reset at birth, but the wrong button was pressed and I came out colorblind. It really sucks for a photographer, especially when those red skinned people look green after I’ve overdone the PP but didn’t realize it because alas, I’m colorblind.

    I wish a walk around the block could fix it. In all seriousness though, I do find that I need a little reset occasionally.

  4. Link Roundup 09-08-2007 | Epic Edits Weblog Said,

    September 7, 2007 @ 10:38 pm

    [...] Avoid Over-Processing by Cleansing Your Visual Palate goldengod Great tip for clearing your head while photo editing. Things always look different when you step away for a few minutes. [...]

  5. John Said,

    September 8, 2007 @ 9:52 am

    I find it useful to take a look at the original photo again and make an honest clear-headed opinion of whether the changes I’ve made have actually improved matters. Incremental changes add up and at the end of the process, I’ve often found that I preferred the original! Cue another round of editing and settling for less dramatic changes.

  6. Andrew Ferguson Said,

    September 15, 2007 @ 5:47 pm

    @Tim: I didn’t know you were colourblind! I never would’ve suspected it, even having looked at a good portion of your photos.

    If you don’t mind me asking, do you find that it affects whether you choose to take photos in b&w or colour?

    @John: I never used to do that, but with the one-touch feature to do it in Lightroom, I do it all the time. You’re absolutely right, I’ll often find that I’ve overdone it and it’s time to tone everything down.

  7. Tim Solley Said,

    September 17, 2007 @ 11:07 am

    Hey Andrew, don’t mind at all.

    From what I understand, the world and the colors in it look much more vivid to a non-colorblind person. I personally lean toward images that are B&W or partially desaturated and with lots of contrast. This could be because the high contrast pops better for me, whereas color photos don’t because color doesn’t pop like it does for someone else. This is all speculation of course, as I’ve never looked through a normal person’s eyes. Whoa would that be creepy…

    When I have to do any corrective work in post, I usually attempt to get the photo looking the way I think is best, then I have my wife take a quick look to make sure I didn’t turn anyone green.

  8. Andrew Ferguson Said,

    September 17, 2007 @ 12:00 pm

    Cool, thanks for the info :)

    I’ve always wondered about that kind of thing. My eyes are fine color-wise, but I wear pretty strong contacts. I haven’t turned anyone green yet, but I’ve been guilty of over-saturating the red in someone’s skin more than once :/

    I do like the partially desaturated look on some of your photos quite a bit, especially this one:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/captainquin/1316757336/

    As for seeing through someone else’s eyes, it may be creepy but they’ve at least made a start on the technology:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/471786.stm

  9. Tim Solley Said,

    September 17, 2007 @ 12:46 pm

    Thanks man. I like that shot on the swings too. Not only did I partially desaturate that one, I added a brown (at least it looks brown to me!) tint to the whole image. Kind of like the movie “300″. I like this look a lot…and should mention that they stole the idea from me for the movie. I mean naturally they would :-)

  10. PhotoNetCast #7 - Editing and Processing in Photography | PhotoNetCast Said,

    July 7, 2008 @ 4:17 pm

    [...] Avoid Over-Processing by Cleansing Your Visual Palate [...]

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