Post-Processing with Vision

Cody Wellema is hard to miss. He has affinity for vintage suits that make it appear as if he stepped out of a time machine. It informs his style of dress and has also inspired his passion for making custom hats. With much of our clothing coming out of major factories, it is rare to find a place that is so dedicated to handcrafting clothing, especially a character-defining article like a hat, but that is exactly what Cody has done for years at the Wellema Hat Company (wellemahatco.com).

I met Cody soon after he relocated to Altadena and I knew upon meeting him that I wanted to photograph him. We scheduled a couple of days for me to come by his shop to make photographs. What surprised me was that he used vintage tools for crafting his hats. Rather than using modern devices, he relied on decades-old blocks, steamers, and hand tools. I observed the weathering on all his equipment, including the blocks that he used to help determine a client’s hat size. The shop was visually rich and provided much to photograph.

I put on my storytelling hat when making the various images of Cody and his workspace, spending as much time photographing the small details as I did capturing him at work. It was the accumulation of these things that helped create the entire visual story.

I had two qualities of light to work with. During previous visits, I had noticed that at a certain time of day, sunlight would shine through his front window. It cast a shadow of the store’s lettering on the back wall. It was an element I wanted to include in some of the photographs, so I scheduled the shoot for around that time. There was also a back area that did not benefit fully from that sunlight and was illuminated by artificial light sources. I needed to be very aware of both my ISO and white balance for both of these conditions.

Whether I created establishing photographs, images of small details, or environmental portraits, I built each composition using the visual draws. I made each new frame after evaluating light and shadow, line and shape, color, and gesture. Though I knew that this self-assignment was going to take the form of a photo essay, I still needed the individual images to be as strong and effective as possible.

I was working in a small space, so I had to regularly take a step back and assess what I was looking at and what I might be missing. As I asked Cody about his process, I got ideas for photographs that I might not have otherwise considered. As I learned more about him and his way of working, I was led to more images that were not immediately obvious to me.

I was working with a different set of circumstances than those I was accustomed to. On the street, I was used to the unpredictability and chaos of the city. Here, everything had its place and function and could easily be observed and considered. Despite those differences, I had full confidence in my way of seeing and fell back on the same skills and sensibility that I used each and every day in the service of a complete and interesting narrative.

Intentional Post-Processing

When it comes to Lightroom, I have spent countless hours learning to master the numerous controls found in the application. I have learned and practiced a variety of techniques to achieve accurate color and quality sharpening, and to produce the best quality print possible from the resulting files. The application is so flexible and adaptable, I have learned dozens of different ways of achieving a similar outcome. While having such options is invaluable, I have to admit to getting lost in the weeds when it comes to trying to find the perfect method for doing anything in photo editing.

What has been more important in mastering my post-processing is applying the way I see when I create my photographs to what I do when I post-process the files. Rather than just applying some preset or filter equally to each and every image, I have become more thoughtful about what I need the image to look like, whether the destination is a web gallery, Instagram, or a print.

Though I initially emulated the techniques and approaches of other photographers, I eventually found my own way of looking, seeing, and editing my photographs. I did not want to rely on someone else’s style to create my own.

By evaluating my images based on the visual draws, I think of how I want a viewer to experience the photograph. I need to understand what the subject of the composition is and how the other elements in the frame either lead the viewer to or away from the subject.

It is important to understand that the viewer is drawn to areas in the frame that are brighter than others, areas that possess a greater degree of contrast, sharpness, and color saturation. One or all of these things helps the photographer control where the viewer looks first and where their eyes linger. Though the image straight out of the camera (SOOC) might possess many of these qualities, they could also be enhanced with post-processing.

In this establishing shot of Cody in his workshop, I used his white work jacket to help draw the viewer’s eye to him. He is also located in the brightest area of the frame, nicely illuminated by the sunlight coming through his window. The placement of the out-of-focus hat in the foreground is an important storytelling element, and also serves as a point of contrast between softness and sharpness, which again leads the viewer’s eye to Cody.

The post-processing that the image received may appear subtle, but I considered how each of those visual elements influenced the viewer’s experience of the image. I wanted to reinforce the choices that I had made in composing the image. I not only restored some of the highlight detail in Cody’s coat and the back wall, but I also slightly darkened the other areas that had fallen into shadow. I tweaked the contrast and the overall color saturation to achieve the look I was going for.

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The choices I made while composing the photographs made my job in post much easier. If, for example, the blanket draped over the couch in the foreground had been white or bright-red, it would have been a problem. In that case, the blanket would have competed with Cody for the viewer’s attention, and I would have needed to change my composition to eliminate the issue. If I didn’t, I would have had to crop that element out (which would have completely changed the feel of the photograph) or attempt to change the color or brightness of the blanket (which would have involved a lot more work). I am not a fan of that kind of unnecessary work, especially when I know I could have remedied the problem while making the photograph.

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Those same considerations came into play when I photographed Cody working with the steamer. I used the same general location and quality of light, but in this frame, I used the light to emphasize his hand. His body and face were relegated to shadow, which was okay because I wanted to draw the viewer’s attention to the gesture of Cody’s hand with the hat.

By being conscious of all these visual elements while making the photograph, I created not only a well-exposed file, but an image that would eventually require nominal enhancements in post.

Basic Adjustments

Both of the images I just discussed benefited from global adjustments made with the controls in the Basic panel in Lightroom’s Develop module, which allows you to adjust things such as exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, clarity, vibrance, and saturation. These adjustments influence the look of the entire composition, with some controls, such as highlights and shadows, narrowing the area of influence. This always serves as the starting point for any editing.

I often begin with establishing a black and white point for my file. I do this by holding the Alt/Option key while moving the Blacks and Whites sliders. With the Alt/Option key depressed, I move the Blacks slider until the screen begins to render an area of shadow as black, and then pull the slider back ever so slightly so that only a small portion of the frame registers as black. This establishes the darkest area of the frame. I will then do the same with the Whites slider, which establishes the brightest area of the frame. With the white point, it is important to differentiate between a bright-white area and a specular highlight. A white jacket or coat, for example, is an area where you want to retain detail, whereas a specular highlight will not possess much, if any, detail. If it is a normal white, I will pull back the Whites slider until just before the area goes to black. Once I’ve done this for both Blacks and Whites, I often see an improvement in contrast. If needed, I then adjust the Exposure slider until I get the overall brightness that I am looking for. With just those three controls, I often see an improvement in the overall look of the image.

I then use the Shadows and Highlights sliders to bring out or obscure slight detail in the quarter tones. These are tones that are not completely black or white, but that skew toward either end of the tonal range. For example, I will use the Highlights slider to bring out the details in the folds of a white shirt. However, be careful about getting too aggressive with either of these controls, as such adjustments can quickly take on an unnatural look.

The controls in the Presence section at the bottom of the Basic panel—Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation—can have a big impact on the look of the image, but I tend to be conservative in my application of these adjustments. It is very easy to go overboard with these controls and produce images that look as if they were “Photoshopped,” which is something I want to avoid. I do not want to call attention to the fact that I have massaged my images. I want the image itself to speak to the viewer, not the technique that I applied in post.

An extensive explanation of Lightroom is beyond the scope of this book, so I would recommend The Enthusiast’s Guide to Lightroom, by Rafael Concepcion (Rocky Nook, 2017), for a more exhaustive exploration of this powerful editing software.

Localized Adjustments

Once I have applied global adjustments, I examine the image to see if it can benefit from more localized or targeted enhancements. I make adjustments like this with controls such as the Adjustment Brush or Radial or Graduated Filters. Once the tool is selected, the interface reveals many of the same sliders that are included in the Basic panel, but now they will affect only those areas targeted by one of the three localized tools.

For example, the Adjustment Brush is a tool I use to apply the technique of dodging and burning. Dodging and burning refers to the old darkroom technique of lightening (dodging) or darkening (burning) certain areas of a photographic print. It is a useful technique for influencing the look of a photograph.

For this photograph of a Wellema promotional card, I darkened the center area, which was appreciably brighter than the rest of the frame. After making my overall adjustments, I used the Adjustment Brush to further tweak the look of the card. I adjusted both the brightness and the clarity to achieve the desired look. I also darkened and slightly desaturated the secondary elements, including the bicycle, to reduce them as potential distractions.

When I consider localized adjustments, I always ask myself how the subject relates to the secondary elements in the composition. In an ideal world, the subject will possess most of the visual draws (brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color saturation). However, that is not always the case, and there may be some element in the background that possesses one or more of those qualities and becomes a distraction. If I was not able to eliminate that element while making the photograph, I can attempt to reduce its influence by adjusting its brightness, contrast, or color saturation.

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For the detail shot of one of Cody’s hats (below), I found that the left side of the frame was too bright. It drew my eye away from the heart of the image on the right-hand side. To remedy this, I used the Graduated Filter to reduce the brightness of the left third of the frame. I also reduced the shadow detail and increased the clarity. The resulting contrast helps to draw the eye to the hat.

You will find that you can be much more aggressive with selective dodging and burning of black-and-white images than of color images. With color photographs, you may observe color shifts as well as telltale signs of image manipulation. Black-and-white photographs are much more tolerant of such manipulations.

When evaluating any image, I consider each of the visual draws and see which ones are possessed by either the subject or the secondary elements. The greater the contrast, brightness, color saturation, etc., possessed by the secondary elements, the more I have to consider how those elements may be distracting. If that is the case, I will use both global and selective adjustments to better control the overall look and experience of the photograph.

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