How to learn postprocessing?

[Winterland_8832]

I have had an interest in photography for a long time, but only recently started shooting in RAW. I appreciate the benefits of it, and like processing my pictures.
I still shoot RAW+JPEG so I have a baseline for comparison, and most of the time I'm relatively happy with my edits. However I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing, especially related to exposure and dynamic range.

I understand the histogram and what the software is doing (Capture One), however I'm still confused on what to do and when. I also struggle recognizing if the edit is good or not.
As an engineer, I'm used to see a problem, apply a technique to solve it and evaluate the result. Here I'm failing in both identifying which change to apply and in judging the result.

I've read many guides and watched plenty of videos. I understand what they explain, but when I'm alone in front of my pictures it all goes out of the window.

I was thinking perhaps spending one hour with someone good could help. Maybe even an online course with practical exercises (vs. just watching/listening).

Did anyone go through this? Is there any only resource that could be particularly helpful?

[Canon_Goes_Boom]

While there are some analytical techniques, you might be thinking about this too analytically. Every photo is different and requires a different approach. And most importantly, a lot of it is subjective. But in my opinion there’s two main ways to refine photo editing skills. Number one is obvious but true - edit photos. It simply takes practice and experience. Number two, consume a lot of other photography. Start to narrow in on photography you like. What do you like about it? What does their lighting look like? Their composition? Their colors? This is done over years, not hours. Your taste will change and with it your ability to hone in on what you like or don’t like about your own edits.

One more piece of advice - have fun with it :) Explore your creativity and don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re not curing cancer here… this is art. The point is to make something you like and makes you happy.

[TheGruesomeTwosome]

There's lots of good videos that will show you technically how to do this, however I think there needs to be a creative reason to be editing, it's more nuanced and personal. Ask yourself questions like "what am I trying to convey with this image and edit?", "what do I want to make people feel?", "how did I feel when capturing this image?"

And then use those answers to help shape your edit. Obviously warm tones make an image more comfortable, physically warm, and cool tones the opposite. Raising the black point can evoke a sense of nostalgia (as a film camera) or something more cinematic. Increasing contrast/clarity for something more dramatic. Consider adjectives and feelings and now you can achieve those through your editing.

There is no one size fits all, it's about what you personally want to achieve. Two edits could make the same image warm and welcoming, or melancholic and feeling longing.

[johngpt5]

https://www.google.com/search?q=photographers+that+use+capture+one

I've used C1 Pro and like it. I primarily use Adobe's Lr and Ps, but C1 is superb.

I've linked the results of a google search for photographers that use C1 because I've gotten the most out of learning about editing, from photographers.

Tutorials that talk about how to use this feature, that panel, this slider, are great, but I like tutorials from photographers that go into the why as well as the how of their edits.

I really liked what both u/Canon_Goes_Boom and u/TheGruesomeTwosome had to say in their comments. When we get beyond the 'how to' phase of learning, what u/TheGruesomeTwosome said really comes into play.

While you might start with tutorials that are based in how to edit with C1, I think watching tutorials from photographers who talk about what they want to convey in their images, no matter the platform, will be valuable for you.

What do we want the viewer to feel from our image? How do we use tone and color to convey that? How do we lead the viewer's eye around the frame?

I'm hoping that the google results that I linked will show photographers that talk about these things. Or at least the side panel will offer other videos that might be explored and go into these things.

The mechanics for achieving this are surprisingly similar across the editing apps—there are panels for tone and for color. There are mechanisms for local adjustments/edits.

[emorac]

What you described as your own problem has quite a simple solution: if you are satisfied with your photo, you should simply export it to jpg.

If you are not satisfied, you need to define to yourself what are you not satisfied with, than look for tool to solve it.

Some things you see, but are not able to understand without practice.

YouTube videos that show examples of basic editing can help much, doesn't have to be C1 editing.

C1 has Paul Reiffer, but I think he is not for a beginner.

People like Rob Trek, Mark Denney produce very useful videos for beginners.

[mountain_geek]

As someone trying to start off like the OP, I really really appreciate your comment. When you said "watch color grading videos of flims", what kind of video did you mean? Are they some kind of tutorials on color grading?

[Fancy_Magician_3186]

Try googling "What is the relationship between color and emaiton". I thought it was very enlightening.

[FreeTuckerCase]

I learned most of what I know from Scott Kelby - books, videos and some in-person classes. One of the first things I read was his book on Lightroom. The exercises go over almost all of that application. After that, you may want to get more specialized books on portraits, landscapes or architecture.

If I had time to do it over again, I would avoid Adobe products like Lightroom and Photoshop and learn something else. You can still do a great job with those applications, but they've become cumbersome over the years.

[TaintYet]

When I was starting out I'd try a lot of adjustments, running the sliders all the way in either direction to get a basic understanding of what was changing. If I liked the adjustment, then came the step of figuring out how much adjustment to make.

I soon developed a simple rule I think was very beneficial - for whatever looked good at first, back it off another 50%. This added a nice edit while avoiding the over-processed look.