Get it Right the First Time

A while back when I started to really get into photography, I would often tell myself, “I can always fix that later.” The problem with this approach is I ended up sacrificing too much. I either spent too many hours post-processing, or never got to it at all, because of the time required.

Photoshop is an amazing program and was well worth my time to learn it, however, it became a big crutch of mine. Instead of worrying about if the photo I captured was a good one, I was focused on what filter or HDR technique could I use to make it “pop.” As I progressed, it got even worse too. People would comment “That is an awesome picture… what did you do to make it so vibrant?”

After enough of those comments, I forced myself to refocus and go back to the basics. I studied the principals of light and exposure. Keeping your highlights and shadows in check does wonders come post-processing time. The less time you spend recovering, cropping, masking, the more time you can ultimately spend capturing more pictures. If I had to sum everything up, make sure you know why your camera’s histogram is important.