How can you reduce the amount of adjustment your pictures need?


I was sitting in my studio earlier today, working on some of the boring, paperwork that goes with running a business, when in waked a typical amateur snapper asking for help. It's always a bit irritating, because I have work to do, but we all started as amateurs. And we all have to learn somehow. At least this bloke was asking someone who might actually have sensible answer. Me. Oh well, paperwork can wait, I suppose.

His bits are the bits in quotes. Mine are in brackets...

'I took some photos at my cousins wedding (oh dear, hear we go...) in the West Indies (hmmm, so why wasn't I invited then?) and they all look awful. Red faces. No details in the white dress. (Yes, I know. And shadows so deep you'd break a leg if you fell in) I'm spending ages trying to improve them in Photoshop. What could I do to cut that down?'

Back to me.

Well, there are a whole lot of things to say about that, but just in terms of photography, the main problem is that you're probably letting the camera do the thinking for you. Don't.

Him 'Huh?'

Do things the old fashioned way with the photographer in charge. It's the only way to get things right, especially in difficult conditions.

Let's think about the way a modern, all electronic camera looks at a scene. It doesn't see a picture, just areas of light, shade and colour. It has no idea what they represent. It can only compare them to a standard model and see if they are close enough to what it expects. If there's a lot of dark areas such as big, deep shadows, it tries to make the whole picture lighter. If there are lots of blue/green areas such as the sea, it tries to add the opposite colour, red, to balance it up. It tries to make everything conform to the most boring, ordinary scene it can possibly imagine. And it's imagination isn't very good.

Take control. Put the camera in a manual mode, so you control the exposure. Force it to accept the colour you want by telling it the kind of light you're using. Then use a decent, incident light meter to measure the light actually falling on the scene, so it's not fooled by awkward subjects like a white dress.

The most important thing about photography is light. Light and control. Light, control and empathy. The three most important things about photography are light, control, empathy and composition. Oh bugger...