Book on photo editing

[poli]

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Dear all,

I have been looking for a good general book on photo editing, but I constantly run into books on editing with software x, y or z. That’s not what i am after. I do not have questions regarding operating/running certain brands software, but in need for general knowledge on editing photos. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks! 😊

[Exodies]

Interesting idea but there aren’t general principles of modifying pictures; there are  algorithms which are selected to be in photo editing packages based on whether the abstract mathematical transformation can be given a human scale name. 

You could try one of Dan Margulis’ books on colour.

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[poli]

Thank you! I am going to look into it. 

[Duane Pandorf]

On 12/27/2018 at 4:26 AM, paulhek said:

Dear all,

I have been looking for a good general book on photo editing, but I constantly run into books on editing with software x, y or z. That’s not what i am after. I do not have questions regarding operating/running certain brands software, but in need for general knowledge on editing photos. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks! 😊

If you happen to be using Lightroom as your photo editing software may I suggest researching George Jardine's tutorial The Image Correction Master Class and also his Lightroom Develop Module and Digital Photo Processing Tutorial.  Since Lightroom came with my Leica M-E when I bought it 6 years ago and Apple was quitting support for Aperture I found George Jardine's tutorials a big help in my move to Lightroom.

I know it's not a specific book on photo editing but if you're using Lightroom already this may help.

[Lynx]

I have read Ansel Adams three books on camera, the negative and the print. They make a lot of sense, even if they only discuss analogue technique. 

The practical zone system is yet another book that covers the negative, this time also the digital negative (raw, dng etc). 

But to develop your digital negative you need software, and then you probably want a book that agrees with your choosen app. 

Cheers,

//Johan

[Jeff S]

Consider this for general info...

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Digital-Darkroom-Katrin-Eismann/dp/0596100477

Also, while most editing guides focus on a specific software, the best experts do a good job of also explaining the underlying principles.  As an example, Jeff Schewe’s 2 books, The Digital Negative and The Digital Print, provide good fundamentals on workflow and digital basics beyond just Adobe specifics.  The same can be said for others like Kelby, Evening, Bampton, DeWolfe, et. al.

There are also various video resources.  LuLa did an extended series (12 hrs?) on camera to print workflow.  I also find Julieanne Kost’s free Adobe videos a good resource for general workflow tips.

And as mentioned regarding the Ansel Adams’ book trilogy, good darkroom books and videos can still be enormously useful in the digital age. The principles are typically similar, even though the tools have changed.  The fundamentals of a good picture... and a good print...remain.

Jeff

[jaapv]

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On 12/27/2018 at 1:27 PM, Exodies said:

Interesting idea but there aren’t general principles of modifying pictures; there are  algorithms which are selected to be in photo editing packages based on whether the abstract mathematical transformation can be given a human scale name. 

You could try one of Dan Margulis’ books on colour.

I would hardly call Dan Margulis' books basic, and they concentrate on LAB colour, which can used in Photoshop, but not in many other editing programs.

[poli]

Thanks again for all suggestions. 😀

[Tom R]

By way of clarification, are you interested in the "technical" or the "aesthetic" considerations relevant to "modifying" pictures?

[poli]

3 hours ago, Tom R said:

By way of clarification, are you interested in the "technical" or the "aesthetic" considerations relevant to "modifying" pictures?

More interested in the aesthetic considerations. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by paulhek

[Jeff S]

Anybody can learn tools and techniques.  The important, and difficult, part is knowing when, where and to what degree to apply them.  In other words, seeing and judging...using the tools between the ears.

Some of this is innate.  But it helps to look at lots of art, not just photos, including paintings and drawings.  And not just books, but in galleries, museums, fairs and through classes or workshops.  A good teacher is hard to find, but great when you do.  The rest comes from within.... cliche but true.

Jeff

[Tom R]

True.

Another possibility, depending upon the number and subject-matter, is to look through old magazines, such as LIFE, etc. that are available in your library. Photo editors and magazine production staff members were pretty good at editing and sequencing photographs.

 

And, yes (to the previous poster's response), if possible, visit art museums that have curated exhibits. While some of these might defer to chronological ordering, other shows will identify one or several "themes" and construct sequences around these ... .

[Stuart Richardson]

I completely agree that your best instruction on this front is going to come from observation as much as from instruction. From my own experience, I have found I have learned most from a three pronged approach:

1. I would suggest you look at different photographers known for their color and study their photographs. Look at William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Alec Soth, Vivienne Sasson, Issei Suda, Yoshinori Mizutani, Todd Hido, Martin Parr, Rinko Kawauchi, Richard Mosse...there are any number of excellent photographers to look at for their use of color. For black and white you could make another list: Robert Adams, Gerry Johannsson, Pentii Samallahtti, Awoiska Van Der Molen, Salgado (not really a fan, but certainly it is a look), Irving Penn, Michael Schmidt, Walker Evans, Steichen, Minor White etc etc. I would encourage you to look at books, but seeing the prints in person is extremely helpful. Museums are best for gaining a sense of a given ouvre, but for seeing a lot of work at once it is hard to beat a big photo fair like Paris Photo or AIPAD in NYC. 

2. I would look carefully at nature and life and really think about the scene you are looking at. This is woefully absent in a lot of people's work. If you do not really know what color that plant was, go back and look at it again if you can. Bring a leaf or flower home or to your studio. Familiarize yourself with nature and your surroundings and try to build a robust sense of the natural, even if you mean to ignore it, elevate it or subdue it. The more you do this, the easier it is to spot and remove color casts, to adapt a photo's curves to more accurately render how a scene feels to the eye. Remember that photos are static by nature, but the eye is constantly scanning...when we look at a shadow our pupils widen and when we look back at the sun they close...trying to render a scene in HDR looks so unnatural because we never see the world like that in a single glance, meanwhile a slide with four stops of range can look utterly natural. Finding a balance between tonality and dynamic range is tricky and requires a light touch. I find that letting your deepest shadows go black and your brightest whites just clip (in specular highlights anyway) often gives a more natural photo than one in white every single tone is rendered across a 15 stop range.

3. If you can, try to work for others, even if it just means working on other's images as a favor. When I first started producing exhibitions for clients, I was surprised at how much more difficult it was to achieve good results with others' work than it was with my own. This was not always because I had technically better work, though sometimes I did, it was more often because I had no context for how the image was made, or what was in the mind of the artist. Trying to put myself in their shoes and to execute their vision of how a work should be not only made me a better printer, it made me a much better photographer. I learned new techniques which I never would have needed to employ in my own work, and I learned to see images from a more objective standpoint...to see what best suited the image and the vision of the artist, rather than what I might personally consider to be "correct". 

This is a lifelong process...I have only been doing photography seriously for about 18 years, and professionally for about ten. This stuff takes time. The good news is that the journey is usually the best part of this particular endeavour. 

Edited December 30, 2018 by Stuart Richardson

[Stuart Richardson]

I just saw in your profile that you are Dutch...if you are looking for something close to home definitely look at Awoiska van der Molen for B&W. Sequester was a beautiful and distinctive book, and her prints are all done in the darkroom and look great. Ed van der Elsken was formative in the history of the photobook and very well worth looking at. For color Rob Hornstra and Rineke Dijkstra have beautiful color and Viviane Sassen as mentioned above. Bertien van Manen for both etc. There are a ton of great Dutch photographers! 

[Jeff S]

A view camera (image upside down and reversed) can do wonders for one’s compositional skills.  The first time I ever drew a human face effectively was working from an upside down photo.  I still flip my photos occasionally on my computer, or when viewing prints, to assist in assessment and editing.

In the Netherlands, I would spend lots of time looking at Dutch painters, not just photographers.  Vermeer and others knew a thing or two about light, texture and composition.

Jeff

[wda]

19 hours ago, paulhek said:

More interested in the aesthetic considerations. 

In which case do look at David duChemin's book 'Vision & Voice '. I found it very useful a few years ago. He recounts his thought processes from picture concept  through digital processing to final output. Although he uses Lightroom, that should not limit its usefulness when alternative software is used.

[poli]

Thanks again for all thoughts and advises. By coincidence i decided yesterday to buy a book of Jay Maisen. But definetely going to see some Vermeer’s again as well 😉 Van der Elsken is on my coffeerable, but  i will check out some other dutch photographers mentioned. 

[Guest Nowhereman]

@poli - The best book I've seen on this is Black & White: Photographic Printing Workshop by Bartlett and Tarrant. It deals with darkroom printing, but shows how photographs can be transformed, not only by gradation and contrast changes, but also by selective changes burning and dodging. All this is applicable to digital post-processing, but I don't think there is any book on digital processing that is as good as this one. Extensive before and after pictures, including various alternatives for some of the images, show what can be done — and give you a feeling for how you may want a  a fine print to look: there enough examples for you to see what you might want to do with your images. (I may be late to the party of this thread, but you may want to have a look at this book.)

Edited March 2, 2019 by Nowhereman

[poli]

3 hours ago, Nowhereman said:

@poli - The best book I've seen on this is Black & White: Photographic Printing Workshop by Bartlett and Tarrant. It deals with darkroom printing, but shows how photographs can be transformed, not only by gradation and contrast changes, but also by selective changes burning and dodging. All this is applicable to digital post-processing, but I don't think there is any book on digital processing that is as good as this one. Extensive before and after pictures, including various alternatives for some of the images, show what can be done — and give you a feeling for how you may want a  a fine print to look: there enough examples for you to see what you might want to do with your images. (I may be late to the party of this thread, but you may want to have a look at this book.)

Thanks! I will take a look at this book. 

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[jankap]

I have loaded the new (2018) version 5 of the Picture Postcard Workflow of Dan Margulis (PPW 5). It can still be used for Photoshop CS6 and is free of charge.

More features so more learning.😕 First results seem to be better than PPW 4.😊 

Jan