File Preparation.
Editing the shoot, then aligning, cleaning, and sharpening images.
The Masterclass Goal: Techniques for joining the workflow dots.
This is not the glamorous part of the workflow, but the “nuts and bolts”, the essential in-between bits of knowledge you need for quality and perfection. The file preparation course bridges the gap between coming home with a memory card full of data and what you do with it first. How do you edit the shoot in a logical way to identify the minimum number of exposures needed to create your final image? All of the intermediate processes, such as image alignment, cleaning, and sharpening. These aren’t the major techniques that radically transform an image’s look, but background techniques that create images with technical perfection. They’re not the hero techniques, but essential techniques all the same.
Benefits for your Photography.
1. Why it’s important to edit your shoot. It’s like a game of chess. We need to reach the finish line in as few moves as possible to be efficient and produce quality. This means using a logical process to first identify the best ‘base’ exposure, then to add corrective exposures to achieve technical quality and artistic content.
2. Learn to edit your shoot with purpose. When we photographed the location, we broke it down into components to create the image we visualised. Now, in editing, we do the same process again. – We look at the components we have and imagine what we can create from them. This gives our retouching a structured “game plan”.
3. Master the technique for perfect exposure alignment. – No matter how careful we are when shooting, even with a tripod, exposures are often misaligned by a few pixels in the camera. If we don’t correct that misalignment, details will become soft. Photoshop auto-align is unreliable; we need a process to verify perfect alignment.
4. Apply image sharpening. We always sharpen at the end of the workflow. – Why? Because we are told this is where to sharpen, and we never question this advice. In fact, it’s not the optimal time to sharpen. The optimal time is after compositing and before we transform the image. – Why? You get greater clarity and definition.
5. The power of cleaning. Cleaning is not only about removing dust and unwanted distractions. – I demonstrate and explain how cleaning has a greater psychological impact, creating visual efficiency and, if overdone, a surreal feel to the image. How much we clean has a major impact on how people respond emotionally to images.
Requirements & Free Video Recordings.
Sessions are held online via Zoom video conferencing. I will email you a meeting link before the session, and sessions are recorded live as documentation. – Please note: These recordings and their content remain the copyright and intellectual property of David Osborn. – They are for your private use only and may not be shared, reproduced, or used commercially, including on social media. Enrollment constitutes your agreement to these terms. I teach using Photoshop; the concepts taught can be applied to any image-editing software. Photoshop just allows greater control and better creative freedom.
David Osborn Photography
69 Grange Gardens, Southgate,
London N14 6QN, England.
UK +44 (0) 771 204 5126
David@DavidOsbornPhotography.com
Let’s Talk.
Let’s chat live on a video call first, free of charge and with no obligation, to answer any questions and concerns you may have before you make any booking. – Please email me, and we will arrange a date to talk in person.