In this series, 10 Offset artists answer 10 questions about their approaches to visual storytelling. Each artist has a different style and subject matter, ranging from lively portraiture to stark architectural photography. Discover how their inspiration, techniques, and stories unfold.
Get the entire Offset Artists Series here.
Question 7: What’s your go-to editing or retouching technique?
1. Devon Hall: Over the years I have found my way back to the simplicity of post-processing versus overdoing it. I do like contrast and tend to lean on the dodge/burn tool quite a bit. I love a good black and white and tend to struggle with the idea of not converting all my files to black and white but if the color tells a story I stick with basic color boosting techniques. I believe your editing should complete the image but not take away from the moment captured.
2. Ester Keate: Little bit of contrast, little bit of desaturation.
3. Jen Huang: I use mainly LightRoom as I do not retouch or edit my photos very much.
4. Jennifer Bogle: Most of my editing is done in Lightroom. I make sure each image has good contrast with a true black and white point using the sliders. I use noise reduction if necessary and occasionally use adjustment brushes to brighten faces or darken areas I want to downplay. If I need to clone anything, I usually take it into Photoshop. I’d say my editing is fairly minimal.
5. Kyle La Mere: High Pass and Smart Sharpen in Photoshop.
6. Lisa Tichané: My editing workflow is so simple that it sounds incredibly boring. I import my images in Lightroom for culling and basic editing like re-cropping, white balance or recovering the whites if needed. Then I switch to Photoshop, add a little bit of contrast and color pop and I’m done! I also love using the content aware tool to remove those little distracting elements in the frame. It’s so simple and powerful!
7. Matt Armendariz: I love to open up my mid-range values to brighten things up, and sometimes I have to desaturate images, especially since red things like strawberries and other fruits and vegetables can practically glow!
8. William and Susan Brinson: Always pull your curves for more contrast.
9. Shana Novak: I like the “punch” adjustment in Capture One. A LOT.
10. Benoit Florençon: Adobe Lightroom is always the starting point. Then Photoshop for cleaning up.
Go to the next question: What image or moment influenced your decision to enter into photography?
Offset artists are visual storytellers with a deep passion for their craft. Images in the Offset collection are gathered from world-class and award-winning assignment photographers, illustrators, and agencies, with a focus on unique content with narrative, authentic, and sophisticated qualities.
