The art of post-production :
bring your photos to life!

Today I'd like to talk about post-production, a crucial stage in the creative process of photography. It's at this point that your photographs take shape and become "your finished works of art"..

Among the many tools available for this task, I'm going to talk about the ones I've been using personally for yearsDxO PhotoLab, Capture One and On1 Photo RAW, which offer powerful and flexible features.

Above, I've mentioned the 3 programs I use regularlySo these are the ones I'm going to use in detail here.

DxO PhotoLab 7 is image processing software very powerful thanks to its algorithms and automatic functions known for its cutting-edge optical correction modules and advanced RAW processing capabilities.

It has been designed for demanding professional and amateur photographers, and offers powerful editing tools and a wide range of functions. image management functions directly on your hard disk (without prior cataloguing) in a fluid, intuitive interface.

It features unique dematrixing, denoising and optical aberration correction technology to optimise the quality of photos, even when captured in difficult conditions.. It has batch processing capabilities, which makes DxO PhotoLab a robust solution with an efficient and flexible workflow. exceptional picture quality.

Capture One is top-of-the-range image processing software specially designed to meet the needs of professional photographers. It features advanced colour management, precise RAW development tools and sophisticated retouching capabilities, all with a hyper-customisable interfacedifferent workspaces for sorting, colour processing, etc., depending on the actions in progress.

Designed as a whole to maximise workflow efficiencyCapture One offers a comprehensive range of tools for cataloguing and editing images, so you can achieve high-quality results without the need for additional plug-ins.

On1 Photo RAW offers 2 possibilities: umanagement of your images directly on disk onor intuitive cataloguing which lets you classify your photos by folders, keywords and ratings etc. to make it easier for you to search later, filter your images, and simplify the selection and management process.

In other words, you can browse your hard disks and folders, then catalogue just what you want, archiving folders you won't be needing for a long time. So On1 Photo Raw lets you work and switch back and forth between the catalogue and the hard disk very easily! On this point it's a hydric 😅 !

DxO PhotoLab works directly on the folders on your hard disk. So no time is wasted cataloguing, but when you browse your photo folders, DxO PhotoLab creates an index of your images, by metadata, exif, keywords etc... Which means that without prior cataloguing, it has an "internal table of contents It is self-managed and when a search request is made, it is intelligent and will retrieve all the images requested.

Capture One (C1) is another story, because you have 2 work options traditional cataloguing or session cataloguing.

A bit like On1 Photo Raw, which has this ambivalence but Capture One will work either in a catalogue or as a session. You will need to choose.

The session is perfect for a project, model or wedding shoot, and once that job is done, you can archive your session on an archive hard drive or import that session into a C1 catalogue to centralise all your sessions so you can browse all your files more easily later. Note that you can create and open as many catalogues or sessions as you like (at least, as many as your computer will support 🤓 ).

Please note: Now that we have meta-cataloggers such as Peakto This means you can centralise all your sessions and hard drives under a single interface, without eating up too much space on your working disk.

To help you organise your images, I invite you to read this dedicated article because that would make this one far too long! 🤓 And my workflow in this article.

Once you have organised your files, these 3 programs offer a suite of powerful tools for correcting and improving your photos. Here is what I suggest to get you started on developing your photos:

This software not only processes and corrects errors, but also adds artistic touches and style to your photos:

Presets, styles or presets are 3 different names for the same thing 🥺 depending on the software. They are fast (created by yourself or the creators of this software) to apply adjustments to several photos : batch processing. This way you get a series of photos that are consistent in terms of light, colour and contrast.

Once your photos are edited and ready, all that's left to do is export, share and, better still, print them 🥳! All the software mentioned in this article will allow you to do all that.

As you can see, post-production involves a whole host of steps to bring your photos to life! Whatever software you choose, you'll have all the tools you need to correct, enhance and personalise your images in a professional way.

Whether you're an amateur or a seasoned professional, mastering developing will give your photos an unrivalled sparkle and personality. I invite you to consult my training courses on these 3 software packages or even better if you'd like to see some of these software programmes in video and their new features, please visit my YouTube channel.

Thanks for reading Dragonstreet Photography, see you soon,

David