Landscape Photography Editing - Complete Post-Processing Workflow

I've had a few requests over the past few months for a video looking at my editing process. This is a bit of a long one(!), but it covers my typical post processing workflow using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for editing a mountain landscape image. This includes my general edits in Lightroom, and more local adjustments such as use of luminosity masks and local sharpening using a high pass filter in Photoshop.

This is really just a quick overview, and in the interests of time I haven't gone into great detail for each of these processes, but do let me know in the comments below if there are any other points you would like me to cover in more detail in future videos.

#landscapephotography #postprocessing #lightroom #photoshop

For more detailed videos looking at post processing, particularly with more focus on processing images 'naturally,' I highly recommend checking out Alex Nail's channel:

To learn more about luminosity masks, check out videos like this from Nick Page:

[wajidqureshi]

I normally skip videos about post processing as I try to get it right in the field. Any post processing for me is slight adjustments on exposure, shadows, highlights on Lightroom and that's it. This video has shown full capabilities of post processing and will explore Lightroom further. Thanks for this very insightful video.

[pl]

Well done and well explained without any fluff.

[ManoloFloyd]

Thanks! I didn't know about luminosity masks. I'll check how to do it in Affinity Photo because I prefered to pay only Ligthroom and have more storage and pay just once in my life for AP.

[steverich_photography]

Thank you Sam, nice to see your workflow, great job.

[douglasinsole]

Thank you ever so much, awesome video. Points were concise which helped make this video enjoyable and easy to watch.

[tonymckeage]

Great Post Processing Vlog, thanks for sharing

[andrewsimpson]

Great bit of light and hills. Interesting to see your process but Photoshop is a foreign language to me, maybe one day :-)

[joelingram]

Thanks for this walk through. Very nice and I'll have to watch more vids/subscribe in the future. Got a Q regarding the save process that you touched on at the end of your vid. I do bird photography and am just starting to learn PS. I use Sony gear and use Capture One to convert my RAW files. Then I do all my edits in PS. I'd been trying to decide what files to keep. Now, I cull with PhotoMechanic (mac os) and export my RAWS keepers to a raw folder. They sit there in one lump. I then do edits and PS and save my TIFF with all edits to breakdown folders where those RAWs are. I use the name for the TIFFs as the RAWs so I know which ones are the same photo. The breakdown folders organize my shots by location and then break them into species. So if I location had woodpeckers and swallows there'd be a folder for each. Usually, I don't completely process all the RAWs I kept as keepers. I do a few and will work on some others as time allows. When I do finish my PS work, I export at a TIFF with all but sharpening (I was told sharpening applied to a larger image will not look right if you reduce the size of the image by a lot). So I save the image with all adjustment except sharpening as a full size TIFF. (This way I have the RAW to completely start over on - and a TIFF with edits to just make some changes to my existing work if need be). Then, I apply sharpening and kick out one JPG full size. Then create a online-use smaller image with sharpening applied as well. So in the end I have one untouched RAW, one full-sized unsharpened TIFF, a full-size JPG sharpened and a small JPG sharpened. Not sure if this is all necessary or the best way. Your thoughts/suggestions? TIA.

[LeePelling]

Very well done that Sam, fantastic image and very interesting to see your workflow, great job mate

[ravondal]

I like the before better. Love the coolness of it.

[DBsNature]

Why the 16:9? Is that a standard starting point of size for future possible sizes? Wouldn't yhou want to edit the colors in the largest version possible, so if you want to make multiple different sizes, they would have the same color settings?

[raesalmon]

Thanks Sam good video. I have similar workflow for lightroom but although I am aware of TK Actions panel and others have yet to try one of these. Must say it looks awesome. I have just been using range masks in LR up to now.
I was interested to see that you use the High Pass filter in Photoshop. From my graphic design days I have always used Unsharp mask, will have to look at that.

[keithpinn]

Hi Sam: Great video. I also use TK panels (Version 8). Have you upgraded to this panel yet?

[RussWeymouthPhotography]

Interesting to see your process. I tend to use Lightroom more having originally come from Adobe Bridge when I got my first digital SLR. Like yourself I'm interested in the science of the editing (I studied Astrophysics at Uni back in the 90s).

[jasonlacey]

Shame about the audio.. I gave up trying to understand what you were saying..