Editing: What's Involved and Why is It So Important?

Editing is like the bread-and-butter for any photographer. While I’d love to get the perfect shot straight out of the camera, that isn’t always possible, especially when working with unpredictable subjects like horses. Here are a few ways I use editing to get you that perfect picture.

1. Making adjustments to exposure, temperature, and saturation.

I often like to make my images warmer in post-processing to really emphasize that golden-hour lighting. Here’s one good example of how I can turn a cool-toned image into something much warmer to better fit the atmosphere of the picture.

2. Masking, aka layering images.

Anyone who’s tried to photograph horses knows how hard it can be to get their ears forward! Sometimes you get that flawless candid shot of your subject, BUT your horse looks totally uninterested. Thankfully, if I have another photo where the horse’s ears are forward, I can mask and combine the images to get one image where both my subject and the horse look perfect. Here’s an example of a before-and-after—notice how both of the horse’s ears are forward in the second shot?

3. Removing distractions and clutter in the background.

Most training and boarding barns lack the facilities or background for a flawless photoshoot. Thankfully, I can remove lots of clutter in post-processing as naturally and seamlessly as possible. This is one of the most important parts of my editing process, as removing clutter can really help the viewer focus on the subject rather than the many distractions in the background! I often edit out fences (see image on the bottom right), telephone poles, and other obstructions to make the final image look much cleaner.

This is also crucial when creating black-backgrounds. A little cropping and object-removal go a long way, especially for black-background portraits! I also touched up the horse’s eyes to better illuminate them against the black background.