Photo Editing For Beginners – Where Do I Start? 9 Things To Help You. Hi and welcome to Episode 124 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Want me to answer your photography question? Get your thinking caps on, more on this at the end.
Here is the answery bit
To help you get started with editing photos here are 9 things that will help you
- What actually is photo editing?
- Do I have to edit my photos?
- What stuff do I need to edit photos?
- Where do I put my photos?
- How long does it take to edit a photo?
- How do I know when I have finished editing a photo?
- What about photos taken on my phone?
- Don’t obsess about this too much
- Enjoy editing photos
Let me explain. I am going to take you through these 9 things, and I have no doubt that by the end of this episode, there will be a couple more episodes where I explain stuff more. So let’s find out eh? And no, as I am writing this I do not have a carefully crafted list of future episodes, so I do not know where this going to take me. This is how my podcast evolves naturally while I wait for more questions…. Hint hint.
In this episode I am going to try to be quick and get this episode done in 10 minutes ok? So I best stop waffling and get into this.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
1 – What actually is photo editing?
Editing photos is when you change something in a photo from that which the camera has recorded. It really is that simple. And cameras can do a lot of this for you, or nothing at all. That is up to you when you decide if you are going to take the photos using JPEG format, or RAW format.
If you are using JPEG format the camera is actually doing some editing in camera when a photo is taken. With RAW there is no editing.
2 – Do I have to edit my photos?
No, you don’t have to. But you probably should be. Check out Photography Explained Podcast Episode 90 – Do I Really Have To Edit My Photos? It Depends But Mainly Yes! For a full answer on this.
But I will say one thing here. Every photo I issue to a client has been edited. Every photo. No exceptions. Every photo on my website has been edited unless it is a behind-the-scenes photo taken with my phone.
3 – What stuff do I need to edit photos?
You need a computer and monitor or mobile device, and some software to edit the photos with. And this is what the next episode is going to be about. That didn’t take long, did it?
4 – Where do I put my photos?
Well, you need to get them off your camera and store them somewhere else. That might be the cloud, but I prefer hard drives in my home office with cloud backup. It just depends on what you are doing and how serious you are about photography.
Want to know what I do? Check out Photography Explained Podcast Episode 48 – My Step By Step Guide To How I Organise My Photos in Lightroom.
I had forgotten that I had recorded this episode so this is a bonus!
5 – How long does it take to edit a photo?
The answer to most questions about photography is, it depends. You can take as much or as little time as you want to, or need to. I used to spend forever editing photos, so long that I began to bore myself, and ended up hating doing it.
Now I do what I need to do and move on. I have automated as much of my photo editing as I can whilst still having each photo edited by me and not the software.
If you love editing photos and loving spending all day fiddling around making tiny adjustments then that is fine. I just want you to know that you don’t have to do this.
I use to but don’t anymore.
6 – How do I know when I have finished editing a photo?
Such a great question. And the simplest way to answer it is when you are happy with it. I know that is a bit of a rubbish answer but that is the reality. There are things that you need to do, and you can quickly get to a decent edit, but the hard bit is knowing when to stop.
I think that there is a good 10 minutes in this question alone, so I will add this to my list of future episodes.
7 – What about photos taken on my phone?
Well take a photo on your phone, whatever make it is, and there is some editing done in camera. It just depends on what you are using the photos for.
Me? I use my phone for personal stuff, family stuff, and edit the odd photo taken on my phone but that is all. And the behind the scenes photos that I take with my phone I don’t edit unless there is a specific reason to.
So photos taken on my phone are generally as taken.
8 – Don’t obsess about this too much
Very easy to do. Obsess about editing photos. Don’t do this. Well, do this if this is what you are into. But you don’t need to. Do the best that you can sure but don’t become obsessed with editing photos.
Why do I say this? Because this is exactly what I did. It became my be-all and end-all. And it was around that time that there were problems with Lightroom being very slow and very clunky. If that is a real word.
If you want to obsess about something obsess about creating better photos every time. That should keep you out of trouble……
9 – Enjoy editing photos
Editing photos does not have to be a burden. It can easily feel like it is one though. I know I have been there. If you spend forever editing photos this happens, and it really can take the pleasure out of photography.
That is why what I am going to tell you in upcoming episodes is so important – we need to keep editing photos to be an enjoyable experience, which it still is for me after all these years. And I am talking here about my commercial work, as well as my personal work.
The talky bit
I love editing photos. But I do not love spending a load of time editing my photos. Editing photos used to be a horrible, time-consuming chore, but these days it is something that I love doing.
I don’t spend a heap of time editing photos, and I have simplified my workflow to the point where it is as efficient as I can get it.
But I still edit photos one by one. Sure I have automation in there but I don’t just feed photos into Lightroom, let Lightroom do its thing and extract them at the end of the process. You know, like a sausage machine, like a factory process.
No, I automate what makes sense, and do actual considered editing to each and every photo. Every photo that I issue I have edited myself to a standard that I am happy with.
You might be surprised how long this takes, which is not that long.
A short talky bit this week as I want to get one episode under 10 minutes. And completely predictably, up to this point in writing this episode I have 9 new draft titles to work with.
What do I do?
I have told you this already. Photography Explained Podcast Episode 47 – Step By Step Guide To How I Edit My Photos in Lightroom
The last word
Getting started editing photos can be an overwhelming prospect. Let me help you with this and get you started loving photo editing.
Next episode
Well, I have started a new thing here which I do want to continue. Photography Explained Podcast Episode 125 – What Do I Need For Editing Photos? This Is What You Need And No More OK?
Do you want me to answer your questions?
You’re not limited to one question, not with me. My podcast has been created to answer your photography questions, not mine, so please get in touch with your question, and when I answer it I will give you a number of shout-outs in that episode, which will exist forever in podcast land. Just head over to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start, where you can also find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me.
This episode was powered by erm, yet another cheese sandwich, accompanied by a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Nice. This was washed down with a cup of strong Yorkshire Tea as I am rather tired today sitting here in my homemade soundproofed recording emporium.
Yes, I eat cheese sandwiches a lot. Well, why not?
OK – I’m done
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time. I really do appreciate you sharing part of your day with me, and look forward to hearing from you and answering your questions.
Take care, stay safe
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
