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Editing

This page captures most of my current image editing workflow. I hope it provides insights for your workflow. Please contact me if it was helpful or if you have suggestions.

In-camera

I try to get as much right in-camera, even though I work with RAW files. This helps me in the further editing process and it is also important for when I directly use JPGs from the camera to speed up delivery, for social media for example.

White balance

Getting white-balance right in-camera helps direct use of in-camera JPGs and helps as a good starting point when editing.

My default setting is Auto White balance, set to White Priority in Canon as compared to the Ambiance Priority that is more yellow in situations of artificial lighting.

In more static situations I use a ExpoDisc to set a custom white balance. This is especially valuable in situations where light has color casts.

Sometimes I add more magenta to compensate a green color cast or make sure it remains in place. This finetuning is very valuable in green environments including the zoo.

I want to experiment more with setting a fixed white balance during a shoot, to prevent changes due to auto white balance, to help speed up editing.

Image profile

I have experimented with custom image profiles, but for now I've settled on the default 'Automatic' mode.

I set the Automatic Lighting Optmizer to maximum, to prevent strong contrasts in the image and to get an overall brighter image.

The Canon mirrorless camera can display a useful live RGB histogram. Unfortunately this histogram is based on the resulting JPG and is thus influenced by these settings

Auto ISO

I shoot mostly in aperature priority (Av) at the maximum aperature. That way the camera can respond quickly to whatever I point it at. I have configured auto ISO to maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/125s. This way the camera chooses the most optimal settings for shooting people. I can close the aperature if I need to and can use exposure compensation to adjust the settings. I can always change to manual if I want more control and consistency.

Image transfer

I now use Rapid Photo Downloader for downloading images into a directory structure. It is very fast in showing previews of images to split the photos into separate folders.

The software has the option of directly making a remote back-up. I like that option, but I don't use it at the moment.

Each data has a different folder, grouped by year. Filenames start with the timestamp and contain the camera model and original image number to make them unique.

Editing

Editor

I have lost access to creative works in the past as a result of using proprietary software, so open standards and free software are very important to me.

I have used many different free software programs over the years. In the past I used GIMP, but switched to Darktable for more convenient controls and an overall faster workflow. Darktable works best with RAW images, which is now my file format of choice to provide maximum flexibility when editing. Also the color science in Darktable is very well implemented, resulting in accurate colors if you use the newer scene-referred editing workflow.

When Aurélien Pierre forked Darktable into Ansel in 2022, I decided to follow his lead as I agreed with his observations of Darktable getting bloated and full of bugs. Since 2023 I use Ansel as my default photo editor. Ansel is still under active development and has known bugs, but is already a more performant and more usable photo editor compared to Darktable. I'm hoping for a future where both efforts converge, reuniting the community, but time will tell.

Easy of use

Darktable and Ansel are critised as too complicated photo editors because they provide many detailed controls and use more terms to define the different properties of editing. I would argue that this is actually simpler because they don't hide the complexity that is photo editing. Not only are there technical aspects of image sensors, color spaces and properties of lighting, but human perception also plays in important role.

Taking music as an analogy, the process of recording music and then mastering it for listing is a very technically skilled art. Just think of all the equipment with buttons and dials that is used to produce music. Most of the time default settings work well, but in some cases you need a slight tweak in a specific step in the process. Like in music, developing photos has been a similar technical process in the psat. In Darktable and Ansel each module has a different and specific purpose. This allows users to inspect this process where eacy module has a different and specific purpose.

Ansel in particular is set up in a very structured way, leading you from the basic adjustments to corrections in order to get a correct starting point, then enabling you to add your artistic expression on top of that. Each module has a different and specific purpose. Other well known software like Lightroom hides this complexity behind a seamingly simple set of sliders. The result is that most tutorials learn you tricks instead of explaining why and how it works.

Both Darktable and Ansel come with extensive documentation that help you understand the modules. Most modules have presets available from the menu. These presets cover most editing scenarios, so that you don't have to dive into the detailed settings. They also provide insight in how the modules can be used for certain effects. Ansel reduced some complexity that was in Darktable by only having one module for each operation instead of multiple options.

Culling

I use the star rating for selecting images. I have configured Ansel such that at import images have no stars. In the first pass I reject images that have unacceptable technical flaws and I set images to 1 star when they might be suitable for publishing. I try already pick a few best photos from a batch of similar ones.

Depending on the type of shoot and the number of images I might do a second pass to further reduce the selection by rating images with two stars.

Editing

I use custom styles in Ansel which I configured to be automatically applied on RAW images. That way I have a decent starting point when opening an image for editing.

My current settings:

  • Denoise (profiled) with a strength of 2, to prefer loss of detail over chromatic noise.
  • Lens correction although lens detection doesn't work reliable as the Sigma 100mm macro lens and Canon 100-400mm lens use the same ID. A good reason to not use off-brand lenses.
  • Exposure a default correction of +1 EV, compared to the +0,7 EV that is default in Ansel.
  • Filmic rgb as a tone mapper (default). Depending on the type of photo the highlights contrast setting is set to safe or low.
  • Contrast equalizer to 'sharpen' setting at 50% strength. Module Diffuse or sharpen can provide neater results but is slower, so I use it less.
  • Color calibration with adjusted chroma or temperature slider to correct the color temperature if needed.
  • Color balance rgb to increase saturation and possibly change brightness.
  • Rotate and perspective using custom presets for 0,5 1 and 2 degree increments I quickly adjust most photos to be level.

Optional edits:

  • Tone equalizer to do do generic modifications in brightness, especially to help make the image more readable.
  • Graduated density for photos that cover a large field of view of a room lit by windows to compensate the difference in brightness. I also use it for skies to brighten up the foreground.
  • Vignetting when it helps the readability of the image.
  • Color zones helpful for precise color edits when combined with a mask.

The final look is defined mostly by the Exposure, Filmic rgb, Color calibration and Color balance rgb modules.

JPG edits

I normally use RAW photos for most control and flexibility in editing. If I do need to edit JPG files in Ansel, I try to edit as little as possible. The reduced image data in JPG can only take so much editing before colors start to look bad or artifacts start appearing. Most of the base processing has already be done in-camera so most modules don't have to be used. I use the White balance module to change the overall color. To change brightness I use Color balance rgb.

Export

Most of my photo's are intended for online publications and digital viewing. This is a consideration when editing, but also when exporting.

I restrict the output resolution to 2400x2400 pixels, which is sufficient for a high-resolution viewing on most devices. In a 4:3 resolution this would be a 2400x1800 resolution, which is still over 4 megapixel.

Export is set to the common sRGB colorspace for maximum compatibility.

I set the JPG quality to 80% or sometimes even lower. Higher quality is relevant if you expect users to crop, needing the pixel-level detail to be kept. I have tried exporting a lower lower quality levels to save disk space and bandwidth, but this can cause banding, especially in gradual areas like fog.

The lower resolution and reduced quality result in a file size of around 500kB per image. This way they take up less space and download faster over the internet.

I export to the same naming convention as used when importing images onto the computer.

Publication

Key for publication to me is a direct viewing experience. Most online storage solutions nowadays offer an online photo viewer. Trying free software solution I have good experience with hosted Piwigo and Nextcloud. I currently use Nextcloud to upload and share photo as I already use Nextcloud for other reasons like syncing calendars. There are dedicated photo editing and viewing apps in Nextcloud, but I just upload to a folder and share that folder.

Fast delivery

Live coverage of events on social media is more common and it works bests with photos. As a photographer I want my photos of quality to be shared in the moment instead of arriving weeks later when everybody already settled with the lower quality smartphone snapshots. This requires me to speed up the process and take shortcuts to have key photos be available more quickly.

I have configured my camera in a way that the in-camera JPGs can be used to export right away. Nowadays I can download images wirelessly using the app, but in the past I have used a small USB cardreader on my smarthpone. When reviewing photos during the event I rate photos that stand out to a 3-star rating. This can for example be because it was the best looking of a set of group pictures, because it captured a key moment, because it is a good looking photo of an important person, or because it captured the ambiance. Three stars are too high of a rating for my basic edits, but this way they stand out in the mobile app and on the computer when importing. I might as well have used 1-star or 5-star ratings for that matter. I then use this ad-hoc selection when selecting images for fast publishing. The Canon Android camera app sorts photos based on rating, so they directly stand out. When importing the ratings are maintained, so I can do the same selection in my photo editor. I have set up my editor in a way that my common editing steps are applied by default, so most photos only need an adjustment in exposure and white balance.