How to Revolutionize Your Raw Processing

There is an art to raw image processing and it takes practice to master. In this video, two veteran photographers walk you through their workflow and offer some tips on getting the most out of your files.

I moved from JPEG to raw files pretty early into the ownership of my first cameras as I had a background in Adobe Photoshop. It didn't take long before I realized where my limitations were in post-processing, and how much I ought to do before I even get to Photoshop. So, I bought an Adobe Lightroom license (those were the days!) and I switched to shooting raw. Back then, cameras' images didn't sport much in the way of flex, even in raw format. Nevertheless, there were a lot of effective methods to improve your image, and conversely, a lot of negative adjustments.

This video is primarily aimed at bird photography, but if you're not a bird photographer, I implore you to stick with it anyway. I have had to try my hand at bird photography a few times in my career, usually because I am reviewing something. There are very few genres that have finer margins when it comes to getting a great shot, and those margins are both in-camera and in post-production. With such fine details that need to capture, you need faster shutter speeds and long lenses, which means far less light than you might have hoped. The usual trade-off for this is the ISO value which brings about noise. While Jan Wegener does this with his preset, you can mimic the effect yourself.