Today i'm going to talk about over editing your photos
editing is a very personal thing an edited photo can look good to one person but it can look really
bad to another person but there are certain things that you really need to look out for
that makes it look unnatural and over edited now this is something I'd say 99% of photographers
have done at some point you get a shot you like or you've taken some nice photos from
a great day out you get home upload them to your computer and then you go crazy with the sliders
pushing and pulling them all over the place and you end up with something that looks fantastic to
your eye after sitting in front of the screen for hours and this is half the problem if you're
sat in front of the screen you can become numb to what looks good and what doesn't then years
later you look back at those images and cringe and you wonder why you didn't see how bad they
were in the first place now i'll show you what to look for so you don't have to wait
years to see this and hopefully i can give you some tips so you can catch it in the edit
the first one to look out for is haloing this is when you increase the contrast you might push and
pull the highlights and shadows a little bit too much and then you add the white and black
sliders to the equation what sometimes happens in this situation is that around the darker parts of
your photo especially when they're surrounded by really bright parts it almost accentuates those
bright parts right next to the dark parts so it gives it a halo the easiest way to spot this
is to zoom right out of your photo and make it quite small on your screen
you'll then be able to look for a halo around any of the dark parts
if you do get this halo wing this is a sign that you've over edited your photo it can
also do the opposite you might get a darker halo around objects as well so really keep an eye out
for this and if you spot it dial those settings back a little bit until you can't see that halo
when you push and pull the colors around a lot the image can very quickly look unnatural in
some cases this can add to the shot and make it sometimes look quite quirky but if it looks too
unnatural this is when it'll start to look really over edited now there are a few things that can
cause this when you move the white balance sliders around too much these can really change the colors
and then there's saturation the saturation is not only changed just by that saturation slider
a lot of other things can change it as well if you increase the contrast
this will increase that saturation if you pull the black slider down and the white slider up
this will also increase the saturation and the others are the saturation slider itself which i've
already mentioned and the vibrant slider also if you add these all together this will very quickly
push the saturation over the acceptable levels making the photo look over edited once again you
might only make slight changes to each one of these sliders but it is an accumulative effect
and this can very quickly make those colors look unnatural what i tend to do is work my way from
the top to bottom with these basic sliders i don't always adjust every single one but if i adjust
contrast i might then decrease the saturation with that saturation slider it's all about being
subtle with these sliders and the more of them that you use the more subtle you'll have to be
now you're probably wondering what the heck crispiness is and this comes down to a feeling you
get when you look at a photograph let me show you what i mean if i take the clarity slider all the
way to 100 and then the texture slider all the way to 100 as well and then add a load of sharpening
this then gives that crispy feel it gives the hard edges in your photo a kind of a heightened look
and if you zoom in you might even see a high lighted line of pixels around the edge
sharpening and the clarity tend to increase the contrast of an edge over a few pixels in thickness
and this is what gives them that over edited look again the key is being subtle with the sliders
and that sharpening and if you're not sure how to sharpen your photos effectively i've done a
tutorial on this already so check it out in the eye in the corner or the link in the description
now this next one does relate to the over saturated images like i said earlier when you
increase that contrast it increases the saturation but when you really do add a lot of contrast even
if you bring the saturation back down this can make the photo look unnatural like i've already
said an issue with your photo can be compounded when you go through those different sliders
and this is the same with contrast obviously if you increase the contrast slider this will
increase the contrast of your shot but if you decrease the shadows and increase the highlights
this will also increase the contrast also decreasing the black slider and increasing
the white slider will also affect contrast so these five different sliders can all add to
the contrast of your photo and come to think of it clarity also adds to the contrast as well so
there are actually six sliders that can change the contrast in your shot so again be really
subtle and if you do change one you sometimes have to compensate with one of the others
now with over edited banding i'm not talking about gradient banding that you get in the sky
say if you export an 8-bit image i'm talking about the really ugly patches of single color say around
the sun if it's in your frame especially when you clip your highlights check out this sunrise photo
with the sun in the shot i want a gradient of colors from the bright sun through to the wispy
areas in the sky but if i increase the contrast i drop the highlights and then increase the shadows
it starts to give some banding around that sun because i've over edited the shots with
these sliders you can see the sun is completely blown out and you get this massive blob of white
with no detail in it whatsoever then this yellow ring around the sun and then straight into orange
this does look awful and with a shot like this you need to be a lot less aggressive with the edit
and it's taking that subtlety to a whole new level with this one i'd keep the boat as a
silhouette and then blow out more of the sky and even add a bit of haze in front of the sun
so it gives a bit more gradient this is a really tricky one to edit well though and i did spend a
fair bit of time getting this one right as for catching yourself doing any of these a lot of
them can be due to the time you spend in front of your computer if you're sat for hours editing
don't share them right away step away from the computer and then come back to them the next day
or even a few days later or even a week later if you can this will enable you to get fresh
eyes on your photographs and then go through this list and see if you can spot any of these issues
another way is to get a critique on your photos this will enable your photos to be looked at
without the emotional attachment that you might have to them and it's a great way to develop your
photography and editing skills you do have to have quite thick skin for this though to
be able to take that criticism and use it in a positive way but if you do you'll learn so much
about your photography and how you can improve on it i actually do photo critics here every now and
then on my youtube channel and actually come to think of it i'll get one lined up soon so
keep an eye on the communities tab on my youtube channel i'll post a link there where you can share
a photo with me and then i'll pick the best ones and then i'll photocritique all of those best ones
now if you use the basic sliders in lightroom or one of the other editing programs and often
push them to the extremes this will definitely be a sign that you're over editing your photos
so keep an eye on how much you're changing them and if they're often right to one side or the
other this is a sign that you may be over editing when i'm editing my photos what i'll tend to do is
reference back to the original image every now and then in lightroom you can quickly do this by using
the backslash button this will toggle between the before and after images you don't have to do it
all the time but if you do it every now and then you can sometimes catch yourself over editing and
getting too aggressive with that photo edit then all you need to do is dial it back a little bit
the aim of editing is to basically bring out the best in your photo and get it looking to what you
saw when you took that photo but not something that looks garish or very obviously over edited
so take a look at your photos you edited from last year and see if you can spot haloing crispiness
over saturation or over contrasty images if you can go back and dial those settings back a little
bit sometimes it may be a subtle change to get it back into the realms of looking like a good photo
and other times you may have to reset everything and start again now how are you getting on with
your editing do you struggle with it or do you find it a breeze let me know in the comments below
it'll be great to hear your thoughts now if you're interested in seeing how i edit my
photos and want to see my complete workflow you need to watch this video next also make sure to
subscribe if you haven't already so you don't miss any of my videos i'll see you next time