Do I Really Have To Edit My Photos? It Depends But Mainly Yes!
You do not have to edit photos if you are happy with the photos your camera or phone has captured. To get the best photos though, yes you do have to edit them. Editing photos is refining and improving what the camera has captured. Every digital photo created has been edited in some way or another.
Hi and welcome to Episode 90 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode, I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
You can listen to the episode here
Or you can read on - it’s entirely up you!
What is photo editing?
Editing is any adjustment done to a digital photo. It is also called processing. This can be any adjustment to the file created.
There are two (main) types of picture formats which have an impact on the answer to this question. JPEG and RAW. Most photos are taken in JPEG or RAW formats.
What is JPEG?
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group. But that is not important here. JPEG is a standard image format where the camera carries out an amount of editing or processing as well as compressing the file.
So if you take a photo using the JPEG format the photo that you see has already been edited!
What is RAW?
RAW means RAW, as in the RAW file. When you take a photo using the RAW format there is no processing done to the image, apart from creating the image itself that is.
So do I need to edit JPEG files?
No, you do not have to edit JPEG photos if you are happy with what the camera has given you, but most photographers will edit JPEG files to improve them.
And do I need to edit RAW files?
Yes. A RAW file is dull flat and uninteresting.
This is why JPEGs look better than RAW photos, which I know can be confusing.
What about phone photos?
Well, I use an iPhone, and it takes photos using HEIC format. I will explain this in another episode.
The phone does editing to all photos, and you can edit the photos to make them better. So the photos that you take with a phone are really no different in terms of do you need to edit them or not.
Do I have to edit every photo?
No, you do not have to edit every photo. Choose the photos that you want to edit and edit them. Don’t ever edit every photo unless you are a photographic genius and every photo that you take is amazing.
On an architectural shoot, I will edit 20-30 photos, out of around 50-100 that I have taken.
And on a two-week holiday, I will take up to a couple of thousand photos, but will only edit the best 20-30 of them. (post episode note - I take a lot less photos these days)
Choosing which photos to edit is an art in itself.
How much editing do I need to do?
Again, it depends. For my architectural work, I do more editing than I do for a photo taken with my iPhone.
And if I am working on a portfolio image I will spend more time on that than I will do for other photos.
But I spend as little time editing photos as possible.
The talky bit
JPEG and RAW. I know it is confusing.
You do not have to edit JPEG photos, but you do have to edit RAW photos. JPEG photos look better than RAW photos but you get better photos with RAW files.
How confusing is that?
And another misconception is that editing photos is in some way wrong. This is not the case unless you are dishonest about it.
Editing photos does not mean making things fake. Well, that is one form of editing, such as making someone look thinner than they are.
But for most normal people editing photos is taking what the camera has captured and making it better.
And there is nothing wrong with that is there?
You don’t write a book without editing it.
You don’t design a building without editing the design over and over.
You don’t make a TV programme without editing.
You don’t make a film without editing.
You don’t make a music video without editing.
And photos are no different.
Editing photos is a perfectly normal and natural process that we do to create the best photos that we can.
Anyone who says editing photos is wrong is wrong. And if anyone tells you that editing photos is wrong then tell them that. And end them to me if you want and I will tell them!
What do I do?
I shoot in RAW, process in RAW, do everything in RAW. It is only when I export photos out of Lightroom to give to a client, or to email to someone that I will create new JPEG files.
Why do I do this? Well, I am creating JPEG files using the settings I choose in Lightroom after doing the processing that I want to do.
I am only converting to JPEG to make the files smaller and so other people can open them. You need specialist software such as Lightroom to open RAW files, which not everyone has.
And yes I edit every photo that I issue or share on social media. Well not phone photos thinking about it.
So don’t worry, editing photos is fine. Just fine.
One line summary
Do I really have to edit my photos? You don’t have to, but I recommend that you do to get the best photos that you can.
Related episodes
Now it turns out I have not covered these before, which I will do in the next episode.
Next episode
Photography Explained Podcast Episode 91 – RAW And JPEG - What Do They Mean? Which Is Better? Having opened up this particular can of worms I need to explain these terms, which I will gladly do.
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I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 13 ½ (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you in the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick