After the Click

Editing is an essential part of my photography workflow. Without it, my photos feel incomplete. But my philosophy around editing has evolved over time.

When I started out, I had a heavy touch. My edits often went too far, and the final photos barely looked anything like what I saw during the shoot. I was fine with that. Maybe it was my early taste, my eagerness to play with every toggle in Lightroom, or a simple desire to make the photos look different. Probably a mix of all three.

Over time, my taste has changed. Now I edit to bring focus to the subject and to make the photo reflect my mood and emotion. I try to do that without losing the essence of what I saw with my own eyes.

My workflow starts with cropping. Lately, I’ve been drawn to symmetry — it brings calm and balance to the frame. Once I’m happy with the composition, I adjust the tone curve to tune the highlights and shadows, usually starting with a gentle S before refining. Then I move on to color grading, using the color wheels to bring harmony between the shadows and highlights. Beyond that, I occasionally use masking, vignetting, and texture adjustments to direct attention toward the subject. Through it all, I make sure the edited photo still carries the mood and emotion of the original scene, and that the viewer’s eye naturally falls where I want it to.

It’s a simple workflow, one that I’m sure will keep evolving as I keep learning. Maybe someday my photos will be good enough not to need any edits at all. For now, that remains a dream — and editing stays a part of how I see.