Not every course shoot goes exactly to plan!

The weather forecast might be telling you that it’s going to be Ok but the reality of poor light combined with rain showers can happen, and can be a show stopper.

So what do you do, especially if you’ve travelled a good distance and time is also a factor?

You reach for your editing tools and save the day!

As a past creative director of my own agency, I learned the value of how important it is to have total control of your own post production.

Even in the good old days of film, I would still take over the post production of the final image to ensure it was print ready and the best it could be.

I embraced Adobe Photoshop from the very first time it was available to use on our studio macs.

So after over 20 years of practice, I can look at an image that has suffered because of the bad shooting conditions and resurrect it into something that would be more than acceptable by my clients.

Some say that this is cheating and that as purest photographers, what we shoot in camera should be the finished thing.

I totally disagree with this old fashioned attitude, especially when in the firsts days of black and white photography when developing your own prints, post production skills were an absolute must for all of the old snappers. To not be able to do your own post production is like being able to make the cake icing but not having a clue how to apply it and finishing the job!

It’s a skill all can learn and there are many tutorials available, but the most important aspect as a commercial photographer by working on your own post production is, it’s 100% your image, you totally own it, no other person can lay claim to that image. The satisfaction I get from transforming an Ok image into a piece of art, gives me a kick every time!