Does Your Image Tell a Story?

When I edit a photo, I pay way more attention to the light than I used to. Years ago, I would adjust exposure, highlights and shadows, and contrast - and that was about it. Sometimes I would adjust blacks and whites too, and now and then use a mask for further refinement in a particular area. That was it. (After that, I hit the Saturation slider with all my might LOL).

These days I make all my basic adjustments as listed above, and then go straight into masking. And more masking. And then more masking. It goes on for the entire edit. That’s why I talk about masking so much. It’s super important. And it’s mostly about the light, although it’s also about detail and color. It allows me to shape the image.

The other thing I have learned is that adjusting color also impacts the appearance of light in an image. Cool colors are darker, warm colors are lighter - and this comes into play in an edit, every time, because this is essentially a contrast adjustment.

I also play into the direction of the light as well as the intensity, and work to accentuate that in my editing. Lastly, I pay particular attention to how the light is hitting my subject, and what I may need to do to help tell the story with my edit.

And that is what I am aiming for - an image that tells a story. I don’t succeed all the time, but I try, and keep trying. We are all just trying to improve, and thinking about what story my image tells a viewer is part of my process, and I think it helps.