^{photo by Rawpixel via iStock}

More than ever before, photographers today have all kinds of tools at their disposal for getting the most out of their images.

Indeed, post-processing is a crucial component of photography, but with so many different programs with so many different tools available, it’s easy to understand why so many photographers find post-processing a little overwhelming and confusing.

This post seeks to help clarify a few things.

Using Exposure X4 by Alien Skin as an example, we’ll explore five post-processing tips that will improve your workflow, help you save time, and facilitate the creation of more impactful photos.

Let’s get to it!

Post-Processing Tip #1: Make It Easy to Find Photos Later 

One of the biggest difficulties of post-processing is simply making sense of all the photos you’ve taken.

If you’re like me, keywording your photos after the fact is not a strong suit, so why not keyword them while adding photos to your image library? Doing so kills two birds with one stone, that way you don’t have to worry about keywording later. 

For landscapes, you can use the location of the shot as the keyword. For portraits or wedding photos, use the name of your client. You can alternatively use the subject matter or the date, heck, even colors can be used as keywords. Whatever works best for your particular workflow!

 Adding keywords is easily accomplished using Exposure’s “Copy From Card” dialog.

In fact, Exposure’s Copy From Card dialog allows you to do much more than apply keywords. As the video above explains, you can also preview images, make image selections, edit metadata, apply creative presets, and more. 

Quick Tip: Keywording isn’t the only tool at your disposal for organizing your images in Exposure. You can create smart collections of images, apply ratings, and add tags to photos to drill down and organize your photos in a highly customized manner.

Post-Processing Tip #2: Pick the Photos You Want to Edit (and Hide the Ones You Don’t)

Personally, I prefer to flag the photos I want to edit from the outset, that way I know exactly what photos need attention later on.

In Exposure, you can do this by adding “pick flags” to the photos you wish to work on and “reject flags” to those you want to skip. To set a pick flag, simply press the + key to mark an image as picked and the - to set the image as rejected.

Then, all you have to do is set a filter which hides the images flagged as rejects, that way you don’t have to look at them as you edit. It’s a quick, simple, and easy way to improve your post-processing workflow.

Post-Processing Tip #3: Batch Edit Photos Taken in the Same Conditions

One of the biggest consumers of time when you’re post-processing is meticulously editing individual images. You can speed up that process, though, by using the batch edit function.

If you have a set of photos that were taken under the same conditions - say, the say lighting - a variety of edits can be done to the entire set of photos simultaneously.

Quick Tip: In Exposure, just select the photos you wish to batch edit, and you can apply basic edits, apply presets, adjust the white balance, and even recompose the images using the crop tool all in one fell swoop. When it comes to digital photo processing, this is one of the biggest time-savers you can implement.

Get a free trial of Exposure and start improving your post-processing skills today.

Post-Processing Tip #4: Ramp Up Your Sharpening Efforts

The RAW processing engine of Exposure offers you a wide range of tools that help you make exceptional photos. In addition to highlight and shadow recovery, noise reduction, color toning, and other crucial tools, Exposure also has highly effective sharpening tools.

The best way to make use of Exposure’s sharpening features is to zoom in to 1:1 and temporarily adjust the sharpening amount to the maximum.

Then, adjust other sharpening aspects like radius, detail, and masking while holding down the option key. Doing so gives you a visualization of the areas that will be sharpened.

As a final step, reduce the sharpening amount to an appropriate level. The end result will be a tack-sharp photo that gives viewers a clean, crisp view of the subject.

Post-Processing Tip #5: Consider Presets

^{Photo © Andrea Livieri. This screenshot shows the new LUT support in Exposure X4.5. Two striking new looks are shown in the Browse LUTs dialog, each dramatically transforming the original image. LUTs can be imported into Exposure for an endless variety of new styles.}

I don’t know about you, but the most difficult part of post-processing for me is simply figuring out which preset looks the best. I can spend 10, 15, and even 20 minutes or more poring over presets trying to find the right one. 

In Exposure, this process is made easier because you can view different options on the screen at once. This makes selecting which preset works the best a much, much easier process. 

I just pick my top several presets (out of the several hundred available), use Exposure’s comparison view to see them on-screen at the same time, and go from there. It truly makes a tedious process a breeze!

Quick Tip: You can make your own presets, apply them in a single click, and use Exposure’s layering and advanced brush tools to blend them together for a completely custom look.

Bonus Post-Processing Tip: Export Accurately

How you export your images depends on their end-use. 

For example, if you’re exporting an image to post on Instagram, its size, compression, file type, bit depth, and more will be different for a photo of a client that you’re sending to print. 

Fortunately, Exposure has a way to streamline this process as well, thanks to its Quick Export functionality.

Quick Export enables you to easily set up customizable file handling recipes to simplify and speed up the production of images. So, no matter the situation or the end-use of the photo, Exposure can help you export it in a manner that works best. 

Easy, right?! With these tips and the intuitive tools and ease of use of Exposure, you’ll be able to make quick work of post-processing without sacrificing image quality. What’s not to like about that?

Get a free trial of Exposure and start improving your post-processing skills today.