Photo Editor

---
name: photo-editor
description: Edit photos professionally with exposure, color grading, retouching workflow, and export best practices.
category: creative-design
---

## Overview

Photo editing is the darkroom's digital heir: the craft of taking a capture
toward its full
potential — or toward a deliberate vision. Professional editing is restrained
and systematic: global
corrections first (exposure, white balance, contrast), then local refinements,
then creative
grading, always non-destructive. This skill covers the end-to-end editing
workflow for photography.

## When to use

- Editing portrait, landscape, product, or event photos

- Developing a consistent editing style or preset

- Color grading for mood and cohesion

- Preparing photos for print, web, or social

- Learning non-destructive editing workflows

## Core concepts

- - - **Shoot for the edit.** The best editing starts before the shutter:
  correct exposure, thoughtful
  white balance, and shooting RAW. Editing rescues mistakes but can't create
information that isn't
  there.
- - - **Global before local.** Fix the whole image first (exposure, white
  balance, contrast,
  highlights/shadows) before touching local adjustments. Local edits on a broken
global foundation
  multiply the work.
- - - **Non-destructive always.** Adjustment layers, virtual copies, RAW
  sidecars — never bake edits
  into the only copy. Clients ask for "the version before you changed X"
constantly; be ready.
- - - **Color grading with intent.** Grading = creative color direction beyond
  correction:
  split-toning, HSL shifts, LUTs. Every grade should serve the image's mood and
stay consistent
  across a series.
- - - **The histogram is truth.** Screens lie (brightness, calibration);
  histograms don't. Watch for
  clipped highlights/shadows, and expose to protect what matters most in the
scene.
- - - **Consistency across series.** Weddings, campaigns, portfolios — the set
  must feel unified. Edit
  the hero image fully, save the approach as a preset, apply and refine per
image.

## Practical workflow

1. 1. 1. **Cull ruthlessly.** Rate and select keepers before editing anything.
   Editing 500 photos when
   50 matter wastes days — cull to the selects first.
2. 2. 2. **Apply global corrections.** In order: crop/straighten, white balance,
   exposure,
   highlights/shadows recovery, whites/blacks, contrast/clarity (sparingly),
vibrance/saturation.
3. 3. 3. **Local refinements.** Graduated/radial filters for skies and
   vignettes, adjustment brushes
   for faces (subtle skin smoothing via negative clarity, eye brightening), spot
removal for sensor
   dust and distractions.
4. 4. 4. **Creative grade.** Apply the intended look: color toning, contrast
   curves, grain if
   appropriate. Check skin tones stay natural — the fastest way to spot
over-grading is zombie skin.
5. 5. 5. **Detail pass.** Capture sharpening (RAW), output sharpening per
   medium, noise reduction
   balanced against detail (don't plasticize high-ISO shots). Check at 100% for
artifacts.
6. 6. 6. **Export for purpose.** Print: full resolution, appropriate color space
   (Adobe RGB or printer
   profile). Web/social: sRGB, resized, sharpened for screen. Archive: keep RAWs
+ sidecars/XMPs.
7. 7. 7. **Backup discipline.** 3-2-1: three copies, two media types, one
   offsite. Memory cards are not
   archives — ingest and back up the same day.

## Common pitfalls

- - - **Over-editing.** HDR halos, plastic skin, radioactive skies. The best
  edit is often invisible —
  if viewers notice the editing before the photo, pull back.
- - - **Destructive workflow.** Editing the only JPEG copy, flattening layers,
  no version history. One
  client revision request becomes a crisis.
- - - **Inconsistent white balance.** A series where each image has a different
  color cast looks
  amateur instantly. Sync WB across similar lighting, adjust deliberately.
- - - **Crushing blacks / clipping highlights.** Losing detail at the extremes
  for "mood." Check the
  histogram; intentional clipping is a choice, accidental clipping is a mistake.
- - - **Oversharpening.** Halos and crunchy textures, especially visible in
  print. Sharpen for the
  output size — screen sharpening differs from print sharpening.
- - - **No culling.** Editing everything "just in case." Professional throughput
  comes from selection
  discipline, not editing speed.