5 Photography Tips to Level Up your Editing skills NOW!

Editing your photos is an important process for what you want to say as a photographer. Visual communication is about having intent with the photographs you make and seeing them thru. I do a lot of tutorials, but I think its best to step back and figure out what it is that we're doing when we make edits.

This video is sponsored by Skylum

On my channel you will find videos about photography, cinematography, post processing tutorials for Capture One, Lightroom and Photoshop, photo assignments that YOU can participate in, the Artist Series and more. The Artist Series is an ongoing set of videos I produce as documentaries on living photographers. I am extremely passionate about photography and video and my goal in making these videos is to share my passion and enthusiasm with you! Don’t forget to subscribe and make sure to hit the like button and share this video if you enjoyed it!

Ted Forbes
The Art of Photography
2830 S. Hulen, Studio 133
Fort Worth, TX 76109
US of A

[PeteTheGeek]

I appreciate your photography tips. When I first started learning Photoshop, I spent too much time trying to fix bad photos. I had to learn that the purpose of photo editors is to get the best out of a good photo.

[stigmatedbrain]

Please Ted, more about the Artist Series or the Photo Assignments! Please, please...

[manuelstamatiou]

Thank you Ted, from Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺

[gregoryspowell]

"Don't go with the trends, go with the truth"; Words to live by not only in photography but life in general. Well said. Thanks Ted.

[sbai]

Great video Ted - more videos like this please

[TexasPelican]

The cooking metaphor makes alot of sense. I also like "don't go with the effects, go with the story". I will keep both in mind. Thank you!

[ronboe]

Subtlety: This one is very hard. HDR, dehaze, vignette - we all go through stages where a new tool or technique is abused; but most of us eventually learn to dial it back. But it seems to me we all have to go through that stage as part of the learning process.

Cropping and Art Work: This is where drawing, painting and even movies are a huge help in learning how to compose an image and where cropping comes in to give you the composition within the shot you have. An artist, since they define the composition from the get go, is a great person to learn this skill from. A kitchen, less so (OK, I went there. :^) ).

[jimmi]

I’m always in Luminar 4 kitchen or Aurora HDR sometimes I want to visit Lightroom but I still haven’t yet

[neilcousineau]

Great vlog. I’m a hobbyist and I work really hard to get as much of the photo and composition right in camera. I move around a lot to compose the image, I play with in camera settings, mostly natural, Vintage, vivid, and B&W in camera. And my editor of choice is Snapseed. I don’t shoot enough or have the income to buy into the LR and the others payment editors. I post a few photos in Flicker & Instagram. I do print and hang photos at home and am working on my first Zine. Love your channel and you philosophy on photography. Thanks for continued motivation.

[alexanderpons]

Fantastic pointers Ted Forbes, funny how all the aspects of image processing and capturing are stepping up, the explanation you gave using the kitchen metaphore was spot on. Gosh I remember when I started taking pictures I will crop based on what I saw through the lens to be later unsatisfied by the 8X10 print, so we all definetly need to keep in mind in what medium our image is going to be showcased. Thank you for loving Photography as well as for pointing us to look and take into account certain things when creating images!

[aviatorman]

Excellent analogy. Your perspective speaks to many of us. I think we often over complicate things and realize the obvious later on. Editing is simple when intentional as you said. Thanks for touching this interesting subject. Cheers from Seattle.

[heliopolis]

Ted, this lesson (not a tutorial) was so useful to help me rethink the basics of building an image. Thanks for your approach to visual communication, it's always inspiring.

[fjzingo]

Like youre music analogy, come from that angle and will stay there with photo as a fun hobby. Listening and study art of all forms is an inspiration to do even better art. Difficult to see my own fotography as art though, perhaps because the camera has always been with me aas a documentation tool of life. Went through my photo collectuon from the 90s, some pretty interesting photos there, especially street stuff without the intention to do street photography.

[painteddog]

Ted love the idea of "learning to look at photographs" I keep a Pinterest page called "Analyze". It's filled with images (photographs, drawings, paintings) that I want to explore and ask "Why do I like this? Why does this seem to work?"

[barnzuardo]

What a great video Ted. . you take photography way beyond the technical specs of cameras and editing programs and suggest various artistic approaches. . Well done!

[michaelconchscooter]

Love the cooking analogy. A picture In my head I will never forget. Best ingredients...hmm.

[ejdjuk]

Wow you are on fire in this ... nice 👍🏻

[joshuatatro]

Really appreciate the video/tips. Good stuff for me to continue working on, and also good reiteration of things I tell others to think about.

One missed opportunity is probably the lack of visuals and instead relying mostly on exposition. Not that it isn't still helpful, but maybe show people how the Dehaze can over bake an image -- just a thought!

[Bloggerky]

Well done. (I would politely suggest that the Skylum images from the sponsor throw subtlety to the side, ignoring one of your guidelines.)

[lensbrew]

Books are more intimate and easily accessible, and that copy is there in your house/office when you need it again. Ted, this is what I'm missing in my office! I have few, but I know there are many out there. Would you kindly recommend a list! I'm a bit greedy, therefore, may I ask for 20+ book recommendations.