In my four most recent articles, I’ve written about the story behind some of my landscape photos. I re-edited each picture specifically for its tutorial, and I’ve now realized that I like all four newer edits more than their respective older versions.
So, I have a recommendation: I think it’s worth going back to your older, favorite photos and re-editing a second copy of them.
Getting a better-looking photo isn’t the only reason why this is a good idea, as I’ll cover in a moment. First, let me show you a before/after of the four images in question (with the “before” being the older edit in each case, and the “after” being my new post-processing):
Some of the differences are more pronounced than others, and you may not always like the “after” better, but I personally prefer like the newer edits each time.
That led me to realize a few big reasons why you should consider going back to re-process your favorite photos, even if you are already happy with how they look:
1. Improving the Look of Your Photo
The most obvious reason to restart your editing process is in hopes that you’ll end up with a better photo at the end of things. It’s not very far-fetched of an idea.
For starters, one of the things that makes it difficult to edit your photo perfectly the first time – and why some photographers spend hours editing a single one of their best photos – is the lack of a clear “end point” that you have initially.
When you’re looking at a flat RAW file with no adjustments whatsoever, envisioning the perfect edited result isn’t easy. It’ll usually take some trial and error, maybe even moving around random sliders to give you an idea of what your options are.
But if you’re starting from scratch again, you can easily flip back and forth from your existing version of the photo to the new one, making it so much easier to reach that “end goal.” It also is unlikely to take nearly as much time as it did originally.
Beyond that, most photographers gradually improve their editing and visualization skills over time. You’ll probably be able to make subtler and more thoughtful edits to the photo with your current skillset, leading to a better result overall.
(If you’re wondering why you can’t just apply the same improvements directly on the older version of the photo, that’s a fair question. Sometimes, you absolutely can. But in many cases, especially if you relied on a lot of local gradients or brushes, there’s just too much processing baked into the first version that may be difficult to undo. Even if it’s not impossible, starting from square one is a smoother way to accomplish the same result.)
On top of that, most post-processing software will update itself to add new tools over time. I edited many of my older photos before Lightroom’s “dehaze” tool existed, and now it’s something that I use pretty frequently.
In short, for more reasons than one, it will be easier to get the best possible result on many photos if you begin with a clean slate – using, of course, your previous version as a reference so you know where you’re going. (You definitely shouldn’t delete your old edits; create a copy any time you’re planning to start anew.)
2. Editing in a More Sustainable Way
I mentioned local edits a moment ago – gradients and especially brush tools – and they’re even more relevant here.
Many of us rely far too much on local adjustments to make changes to a photo. It’s certainly necessary at times, but you’re in trouble if you add dozens upon dozens of overlapping brush tools and gradients to your photos. Suddenly, global adjustments you make could swing large areas of the image into discoloration or improper brightness. The only way to make new edits is to create yet another local adjustment, and the cycle continues.
The better way to edit photos, if possible, is to do large-scale adjustments with your software’s main sliders, and only resort to local editing when there is no other way to get the result you want. That’s where restarting your post-processing comes into play again.
If you did go overboard on local edits the first time around, now’s your chance to fix it. Make a promise not to do any editing that you can’t easily undo, and try to prioritize global edits whenever possible (and if you do need to do local adjustments, prioritize gradients over brushes).
All of this makes for a more sustainable editing process – one that allows you to go back to your photo in the future and shift the direction of its processing without worrying about weird halos or odd colors popping up because of it.
3. Practicing Your Skills
Most of us are spending a lot more time at home right now, and it’s easy for your photography skills to weaken if you’re not careful. Processing your old photos again is a good way to exercise your mental muscles along the way.
It’s also a good time to learn new skills entirely. Earlier this week, Adobe added some new tools to Lightroom, including a local hue adjustment, a new “versions” feature, and presets that vary based on your ISO. I’ve just started to check them out myself, and I’m looking forward to learning more about how they work by testing them on some of my existing work.
This isn’t just practice for its own sake. You’re getting the other benefits as well – a better look to some of your best photos, and a future-proof processing style should you ever decide to edit them a different way.
Conclusion
If you feel like you’re stuck in a bit of a rut, I recommend going back to your existing photos and editing a copy of them from scratch. Not only will you get to practice your photography skills again, but you also could end up with better, more flexible results than before. When you’re dealing with your best photos, any improvement is welcome. Plus, now you have an excuse to share them again on Instagram :)
I hope this article gave you some ideas and inspiration! Let me know below if you’ve got any questions or feedback.
The originals somehow look better to me, you see, they have more atmosphere within. But I also like the edits, they are just have kind of the different mood. Reminds me of Photoworks presets, when you apply it and get an almost different shot. Color play is always interesting.
All kind of post processing is to an extent an interpretation of what was important when taking the picture. And all these interpretations are each time a littel different, so they show also what we see in the picture today. Over time this importance might shift. The interpretation is a process of it’s own and I usually experience a different approach when I revisit certain images years later.
Also, years later I might have other tools to play or work with. I don’t care too much about noise, but five years ago the noise reduction had a different level of possibilities than today. Additionally, our standard RAW converter is also a product under development. Some things I can do today in Capture One I couldn’t have done in Aperture only three years ago.
Last not least, some pictures are emotionally connected to maybe difficult situations at the time. Today I have a distance I could not have when my father died, when I split-up with a friend or when I took a lot of frames of a wedding or a bicycle contest and was pressured to deliver results. Today I can see some gems which would have deserved more care, more attention.
Oh and btw: I logged into my account. Three times, as soon as I put the text into this box I was logged out. So, last attempt is without logging in, if that fails, too, I got better things to do.
All four images are excellent but I actually prefer the originals over the new edits – more moody, more punch and saturation. In No4 especially, what makes the image for me is the beautiful pattern in the foreground water. Brightening the background draws the eye away from that. I would have emphasised the foreground light (as you did) but kept the sky dark. I guess it’s a matter of taste.
I began doing the same thing—re-editing my RAW files as new tools in Lightroom and Photoshop have developed. I’ve also found such plugins as Topaz DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, and Mask AI to be incredible for bringing new life to old photos that had been relegated to the dustbin but not discarded. It may be worth looking at not only your favorite photos but some of those that you thought were worthless.
1,2 i prefer them old way, 3 on new way and 4 a mix of both!
Cool! #4 is also the one I’m also the most mixed on.
I’m surprised you like the old one better on #2 in particular – to me, the new version of #2 is the biggest improvement. But it goes to show that everyone’s preferences are different in photography. There’s no right or wrong, and that’s what makes each of our work “ours.”
Everyone has a learning curve. Thank you for setting a real example. When I started working on RAW files, I raised the shadows a bit too much (but far from reaching the HDR impression). But the colours always had to be subtle for me, my default setting on my Nikons is “neutral”, and if I had a newer Nikon, it would be “flat”. This is my reference to the image I process from the RAW file. I have learned something else:
It is the light that counts. Because I began to pay special attention to the light, my editing went to minimal, apart from cropping and straightening when necessary. If the light is not so perfect, there is of course a little more to edit. Just recently I photographed children of a kindergarten. Years earlier I spent almost as much time in post production as the shooting took. Now it only takes a quarter of the time. And you can imagine those photos look better than the older ones.
Because of your article I went through some of the old photos, but honestly, I couldn’t get much better results.
Apart from that I would like to thank Nasim again, from whom I got the big Elinchrom flash boxes. I used to use smaller portable flash boxes. The difference is really visible.
My humble advice is: do care for the light and edit as less as possible.
Sure thing, Jan! It’s all about the light, fully agree.
This topic definitely doesn’t apply to every photo out there, and there’s certainly nothing wrong if your old edits are hard to beat. I think the other point you mention is even more important: that we end up relying less on post-processing over time, and more on getting it right in-camera.
I still spend a lot of time in post-processing and probably won’t change that (I enjoy it too much!) but I don’t get bogged down nearly as much as I used to. Practice definitely helps a lot in that regard.
Spencer, my old edits are to beat, but they do not really get any better. Of course, if you enjoy it, go ahead and do it. Because there is another advantage: You care about the image a lot longer this way.
It also depends on if your photos are going to be printed. The example with the dunes above (the picture I like most of the 4) would probably not show any difference if printed.
I like your articles very much, i read them all! Thanks a lot!
Great point about how you often change opinion about a picture over time. I would say that if you get a shot that’s potentially a gallery printer / competition entrant then you should take your time carefully utilising tools to get the most out of it without going overboard, as that will always be spotted by knowledgeable viewers. On the other hand, if the shot is just a personal album keeper, I would suggest doing minimal edits to try and keep it as close to reality as possible, not only to save time with unecessary editing but also because in 5-10 years times you are mostly likely to want to see a realistic version.
That’s a good point – I’m definitely talking about “portfolio” type images here, not the photos that you keep for memories. No real need to do extensive edits on those most of the time. An import preset to boost contrast and saturation (if shooting RAW) is probably all that’s necessary.
Hi Spencer, I can’t tell you how apt this article is for me. I’ve been spending much of my covid isolation time re-editing old photos. I have a batch of painted lady butterfly pics that I took in 2012 with my D300s, all shot in jpeg. I had a selection of them on my website, but over the years I became increasingly unsatisfied with them. Just two weeks ago I recropped and re-edited the entire batch and then chose all new ones for my website. What a difference! The photos now are miles better than they were, and I am extremely proud of them. I agree with you wholeheartedly that this is something worth doing to any pictures that are valued but no longer show well. If one has been at this for any length of time, one’s editing skills have to have improved!
Thanks Elaine! It’s a good way to spend this time. I’ve also been reorganizing my Lightroom and Final Cut catalogs… not the most thrilling work, but necessary, and easy to do at home.
The thing that surprised me about these four photos in particular is that I was already happy with how the previous edits looked. They weren’t images I had planned to re-edit any time soon, but writing those articles required it. And the results showed I was incorrect – there was, as there often is, room for improvement!