Post Production Flow: Butchers

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A few weeks ago I took a great shot. Here how it was post produced, from the camera to the final image.

Straight from Camera

Step 1 - Straight from camera
This is how the image looks when just imported to Lightroom. All the sliders are set to default.

Exposure and white balance

Step 2 - Exposure and WB
I took this shot in a fraction of a second and I realised only after that my camera was set to -2EV. Of course it would be better to have a perfect exposure in camera but in this case it was a necessary correction. A good reason to always shoot RAW.

Clarity

Step 3 - Clarity
I love that gritty strong contrast on the edges. It’s my personal taste, especially for my street work.

Lens correction

butchers_pre_04
I shot this pic with a AF Nikkor 28mm 1:2.8 at 100ISO, 1/180th, f2.8. This lens introduces quite a bit of distortion and I always prefer to correct it. Look at the difference after this step.

Neutral BW

step 5 - neutral bw
This is how the picture looks like as soon as I import it into Silver Efex. No depth, no contrast, no emotions.

Street BW Preset

butchers_pre_06
I have my personal preset for my street photography. It has been refined on my taste in the last few months. It’s just one click away, but it required a lot of adjustments to get there. The image is almost finished, it requires just a final fine tuning.

Final Image

Butchers
This is the final image, fine tuned and sharpened. I love it. 🙂