My Post Production Workflow

Today, I’m going to share my secrets of getting great color and monochromatic images. OK, maybe not secrets, I just wrote that because I wanted your attention. Clients often tell me how much they love the final prints or albums so I thought I’d share how I get great prints for photographers and well, anyone who would like to know.

Album designing and preparing prints for purchase/uploading for clients are the two main areas of post production. I take great care over the final images….I want to be proud of my work plus this work is going out to clients, so of course it has to be the best.

I use Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4.  By using the simple power of droplets; the ability to convert Photoshop actions for lIghtroom use really has given me the power to really take a step up from 35mm in terms of great prints. Having send all that, I do not over photoshop prints. The actual image should be precedent for me and true moments, not obvious digital effects. The most important criteria for me in my goal for a great print, is to get the exposure right at the time of shooting. As obvious as it sounds, this is key.

I want images representing the day as accurately as possible. To aid me in reaching this goal, I use photoshop actions created by Jeff Ascough, International Award Winning Wedding Photographer.  Click here to see them.

• Import Images into Lightroom using the ‘punch’ setting
• Label favorites to keep red for black and white, green for color
• Individually assess all images to keep using brightness and contrast where applicable. I do not like over contrasty image but a slight punch. I really love to replicate the old 35mm film emulsions hence why I love to use Jeff Ascough’s recently released silver actions.
• Be sure all images selected have sharpening reduced to ‘0′. We’ll increase sharpening on the last stage before exporting for print.
• All images are then color corrected using the White Balance Selector in the Lightroom treatment box. Yes, even for black and white images images that are not color corrected will have a flat muddy look-. If you skip this step, then prints will not look good.
• General settings for my lightroom prints are all zeroed except for individually assessing each images brightness mad contrast.
• Globally, all images have recovery set to +10, vignetting Amount set to -90 and Midpoint set to +100
• Globally set all noice reduction to +20
• I then select the red label for black and white and export and copy these images to a temporary folder as tiff files, sized to 2600×2600 pixels and use the droplet action Jeffrey Ascough black and white actions. Each image is then assessed before exporting with additional brightness and contrast control in photoshop.
• The same is repeated for color with the color droplet selected.
• Once completed, I then import all the actioned images back into Lightroom with a separate folder
• Globally sharpen all the imported images to around +25
• Keyword all images before exporting to Pictage for viewing by the bride, groom, family and friends.

References:
• To create a photoshop droplet to be used in Lightroom, see these excellent tutorials from Adobe TV.

This is not a very detailed workflow as this would take several pages to fill. But, this is a process for what works for me and is all completed within one work day. Some photographers like heavy contrast, some don’t. I personally prefer to replicate the old film emulsions that I grew up using in the 80s and 90s, particularly, my favorites were the Ilford films.

I’ve also found that the built in Image Processor found in Adobe Bridge can be a bit buggy for some reason so I now use Dr.Brown’s image processor which is, I think the same terrific photoshop guy who came up with the built in version, but this version is more extensive, more powerful and, at least to me, bug free.

If you have questions or comments, add them below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Cheers,
Philip

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