In the later stage of photography, share the processing ideas in the later stage of photography.

in the later stage of photography, share the processing ideas of photographic works

What is the most important step in the later stage of photography? Color matching? Synthetic? Skin treatment? Actually, it's not.

For photographers, there is often a bad habit: after getting an original picture, they start all kinds of later attempts. When the slider is pulled, the place will liquefy, and it is entirely by feeling and luck that they are retouching the picture.

I don't know that we have neglected the most important step in the later stage of photography, that is, at the beginning of the later stage, the overall analysis of the photo and the establishment of ideas.

when we get an original film (even before the photo is taken), we should carefully observe and analyze the photo to establish the overall form of the photo, analyze the interest points of the photo, and consider the general ideas in the later stage, and then use various post-processing technologies and tools to deal with it.

the same photo can be adjusted to different tones, colors and styles in the later stage according to different directions of expression, which need to be roughly determined at the beginning.

even the scale of the later stage is actually related to our purpose. If we are more inclined to record photos, then we need more realistic and expressive photos in the later stage, so we can have more room for operation in the later stage.

photos with similar composition in the early stage may have different ideas in the later stage if they express different themes.

The original picture above was taken in Greenland. It was a calm morning with no spectacular scenery. I mainly wanted to express people's loneliness. Therefore, the main tone in the later period is as follows:

The overall tone needs to be dark, which will be more depressing. The contrast does not need to be very high, which sets off the sense of peace in the environment.

the color saturation should not be too high, otherwise the mood will be too warm. The hue should be colder, bringing a sense of tranquility.

Except for people and mountains, there should not be too many details in other places in the picture, especially the eye-catching details. Therefore, although the sky is already a smooth sky, a few clouds that are faintly visible need to be further blurred and erased, and too many details on the water surface need to be subtracted.

with the overall thinking and direction, we can achieve a more unified mood in the later period, so that there is not a red hill above and a quiet and deserted water below, and the later adjustments conflict with each other.

The above photo was also taken in Greenland, and it was also a person standing (sitting) on a stone.

However, due to my different expression themes, I prefer to associate him with words such as hope and brilliance in this photo, so my later thinking is completely different:

The tone should not be too dark, and the contrast should be sufficient to give people the power of hope.

colors need to be warmer and more saturated, so that they are more brilliant and warm.

The details of the picture should not be too dull, and there should be a feeling that there is a sea of stars ahead, so I decided to add some clouds in the later part of the sky.

here, you can directly use the function of clouds and sky in Kaibeixiutu to add a beautiful sunset with one click.

As I mentioned in the book "Later Basis of Landscape Photography", technology serves form and form serves content.

Therefore, in the post-processing, the first thing we need to determine is the content and direction. Is it the majestic scenery, the quiet atmosphere or the inner mapping?

after the direction of expression is decided, the formal tone can be determined, whether it is colder and darker or warmer and brighter.

The specific color matching tool and post-processing technology to be used are the details of the specific implementation later.

when we make the group diagram, it is even more necessary to confirm and unify the form of the group diagram from the beginning.

For example, the above set of original pictures is a street view of Greenland town that I captured during the snowstorm. Some of the original pictures are bright, some are dark, some are neutral and some are cold.

if I want to publish them in the form of a group picture, I need to unify their colors and shades at the beginning from the perspective of the group picture as a whole, instead of this one being bright and cheerful and the next one being low-key and depressing.

writing a composition needs to be decided first, and when we retouch the drawings, we also need to confirm the theme, ideas and direction first.

when we write a composition, we usually make up our minds before we start writing. Although photography projects should be like this, the real world is always full of complexity and surprises. When we shoot in the early stage, we may still rely on intuition to capture it.

So at the beginning of the later period, we need to re-examine our photos and extract those points of interest.

The original picture above is an iceberg photographed by drone, which is very interesting, and I am afraid that I have caught the hidden parts at the bottom of the iceberg.

the interest point of this photo is undoubtedly the iceberg. The boat next to it is also very interesting, because as a frame of reference, it sets off the grandeur of the iceberg.

The land behind provides some background information, such as the iceberg is located on the coast, but these are not very interesting or important information. Therefore, when I was thinking later, I decided to make a second composition and cut off the redundant parts.

in this way, the content is more unified and visually shocking.

The above picture records a cold fishing village in the morning, and it looks rather messy as a whole. If you don't make a choice, the reader may not know what the photographer is going to show.

So I decided to keep only one main point of interest in the picture, that is, bright street lamps, and two secondary points of interest, faint house lights and pedestrians passing by in a hurry.

In this way, by cutting the map in the later period and darkening other scenery, we can visually extract the interest points of the picture, so that viewers can feel the different atmosphere of the Arctic fishing village.

confirming the points of interest not only means secondary clipping, but also affects the local brightness and color of the picture.

For example, the autumn scenery in Patagonia above, we need to analyze the main scenery before the later period begins.

Fitz Roy snow mountain in the middle of the golden mountain is undoubtedly the highlight of this film, which needs to be highlighted.

There are many ways to highlight. For example, the hill on the left side of Jinshan actually looks higher than our interest point because of the distance, so it needs to be cut.

In order to highlight Jinshan, we need to make the color and lightness of Jinshan "stand out" from the photos.

Therefore, the sky needs to be darkened later, and it is better to make it cool, so that the golden peaks can firmly occupy our eyes in the picture through the particularity of hue, saturation and lightness.

even sometimes, at first glance, it looks like a scrap film, but we can also find the bright spots in the photo through later thinking and observation.

The aerial photograph of Guilin in the rain above is undoubtedly not eye-catching.

But after careful observation, we can still find some interesting places. For example, the misty peaks are particularly layered, and the roads and peaks in the picture are particularly geometric.

However, because of the complicated information in the original picture, such as dim colors, messy houses and dense trees, readers' attention will be drawn to these uninteresting places, and they will think that the photo is a scrap.

If we boldly remove these irrelevant colors, details and information in the later stage and extract the rich geometric structure in the picture, then we can "turn waste into treasure".

in the later stage of photography, technology is the foundation, and the key is thinking.

Many photos don't need complicated post-processing, only need to unify the colors of the picture, strengthen the tone and highlight the main body.

For example, the original film of the German castle above was almost completed in the later period of Kaibei Xiutu. As long as the idea of strengthening the gradual change of the sky and highlighting the brilliance of the castle is confirmed, it will be done soon.

Here, you can directly use the "intelligent color correction" function in Kaibei Xiutu to unify the colors of the whole film, strengthen the tone and highlight the main body.

after using the intelligent color correction function, a series of schemes will appear, just choose one of them;

although the appearance of many photos has changed greatly in the early and late stages, the technology used is actually very simple.

For example, in the original film above, the deepening and thinning tool is mainly used in the later stage, which is a simple tool I introduced in the article "Learn to deepen and lighten tools and improve the expressive force of photos".

more importantly, it is necessary to analyze the photos and know where to brighten and lighten and where to darken. This is the key to make a photo look very different later.

the more details, the better.

As for the original piece of sea ice above, I decided to remove most of the details in the white ice and snow, highlighting the lines and color contrast of the coastline.

but the less details, the better.

In the photo of the mountain peak above, I decided to use a brush in the later stage to further strengthen the details of the water surface texture and the texture of the flowers and plants in the foreground, and the sky also made a gradual transition that was not obvious.

directly use the artistic tone and the function of clouds and sky in the Kaibeixiu drawing

and finally get the effect drawing:

Do you need to add details or reduce details? In the end, where the details in the picture need to be processed is actually a question of thinking, which requires us to see more, think more and analyze more.

The most critical step in the later stage of photography is actually to analyze the picture and confirm the idea. Once the idea is determined, the final form of the photo is determined.

whether to use curves, color balance or brushes to do specific processing is actually not as important as everyone thinks.

technology determines the lower limit, while thinking determines the upper limit. The most important step in the later stage of photography is to confirm the idea!