Hi. Me again. Last post in this mini-series about simplifying the photographing of buildings. In this post how I edit my photos of buildings. And I do things a bit differently.

I edit photos of buildings using a logical, well refined workflow. I sort through the photos and choose the photos that I am going to edit. I only edit the photos that I am going to do something with. I edit the photos in Lightroom, starting with the crop and transform tools, working through the panels until I am done. I export the photos out of Lightroom to issue to clients.

But most importantly of all, I edit my photos to show buildings at their best. And at their realistic best. If you only learn one thing from this post, then I want it to be this – edit your photos to show a building at it’s realistic best.

OK who am I to tell you this stuff?

I am a professionally qualified photographer, an Associate Member of the British Institute of Professional Photography – ABIPP.

And, I am professionally qualified in construction, being a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building – MCIOB.

I have been working professionally in construction for many years, and learning and practising photography for even longer, so I know all about this stuff ok?

Photographing buildings is what I do. It is my thing.

Right – how do I edit my photos of buildings?

1 – Lightroom – my editing software of choice

I use lightroom. I have been using Lightroom since it first came out in, I think, 2007. I started learning how to edit photos at the time that Lightroom was first released, so yes I have been using Lightroom since version 1.0.

Lightroom was designed from the start by photographers for photographers, and is quite frankly amazing. I pay for Lightroom, and am more than happy to do so. Constantly updated, cutting edge software for less than a tenner a month has to be a bargain right?

If you use something else this post is still for you as this post is about everything other than the actual editing bit – I Iink to a post that I have already written on this later on.

2 – Photoshop

Get Lightroom and you get Photoshop too, which makes it even more of a bargain. I use Photoshop to remove stuff – that is all. I don’t understand Photoshop, probably because I don’t need it the way that I work.

And with the new tools in Lightroom I will be going to Photoshop less and less.

3 – Luminar

I use Luminar to change the skies in photos. That is all.

That is all that I use and no more. And if I can do all my editing in Lightroom then I am happy. I only use Photoshop to remove stuff if I can’t do this in Lightroom.

See I don’t do a huge amount of editing, I technically correct what is there, and then do relatively minor adjustments to make the photos look nicer.

Take less photos

Simplifying my editing of photos of buildings starts at the very beginning, by me taking less photos. Less photos makes life much easier, saves me time and actually makes me take better photos.

Choose the photos to edit

As I have taken less photos I have less photos to choose from. This saves me time, and makes the job much easier, as I don’t have anywhere near as many photos to edit as I used to.

And I only choose the photos that I am going to edit. This is a quick process for me, as I have done it so many times, but I still spend the time that I need to on this, making sure that I am only going to edit the next photos that I need to.

I spend my time on the photos that I need to. Makes sense right?

My photo editing workflow

I have written a post where I go through my workflow from start to finish – here it is – Lightroom Workflow 2022 – How To Work Like A Pro – Like Me!

It is a long post, and I literally tell you what I do step by step.

But there are a few things that I want to tell you about here.

The way I work

Import presets

I apply an amount of processing to every photo on import. This is stuff that I do to every photo anyway, so why not let Lightroom do this for me? This saves me time and gets me started, making those awful looking RAW files look better straight away.

Auto bracketing

I take three photos at the same time, and then merge them together into Lightroom using the HDR Merge tool. This gives me a broader range of lights and darks than I can get in a single image capture.

And this is fine to do by the way, there is nothing wrong with this.

And when I have done this a new file is created which I work with. So I do this first with all the photos that I am going to edit.

Technical correctness

Once I have the new files to work with, I get them technically correct.

I start with the first photo, and get the verticals and horizontals sorted first. I use the Transform panel and the crop tool together to get the technical correctness sorted.

And then I do the same to the next photo until they are all done. I do all the crops and technical adjustments to all the photos, and then move on to the Basic Panel. Well it is anything but basic.

This is the point – I don’t edit one photo and then move on to the next one, I do a set of adjustments to every photo and then move on to the next adjustment.

Why do I do this?

Well it is a more efficient way of working, which helps me to get consistently high quality photos on every shoot. More on the workflow post on how I actually do this.

Realism

The photos of buildings that I create are realistic. I do not exaggerate the size, scale or proportions. Sure I use a wide angle lens but this is to capture all of a building in a single shot without making it look larger, fake, or just unreal.

And I extend this to my editing – I don’t do that much, the main work is ensuring the technical correctness of the photos.

I will adjust the tones, give the colours a bit of oomph, and remove bad stuff that should not be there, but that is all that I do.

Technical correctness

Very important. Technical correctness, as in level, straight, getting the horizontals and verticals bang on. But looking natural. There is a trick that I do here which you can find in the workflow processing post.

But technical correctness is very important.

What if I just use a phone?

Well, if you just use a phone to take your photos of buildings guess what – you can still edit them in Lightroom and Photoshop, just the same as you can photos taken with a camera.

Think about it, photos taken with a phone are still photos, the phone is just another device for taking photos with.

And yes there will be more processing done to these photos when you take them, and this is part of the challenge. The default position for phone photography is that the photos will be edited in the phone using apps rather than in something like Lightroom.

Until Lightroom Mobile was unleashed on us that is.

Lightroom Mobile

Lightroom Mobile bridges the gap between phones, cameras and PCs. Lightroom Mobile syncs with my Lightroom Catalogue on my main PC, and any photos that I add to collections and sync with Lightroom Mobile appear in the app on my phone and iPad.

Editing photos in Lightroom Mobile is different to editing photos in Lightroom – it works in a different way. But the two are generally compatible with each other, things that you do on your phone appear on your computer and the same the other way around.

Get Lightroom

If you fancy giving Lightroom a go, and you want to help me too, get Lightroom using my affiliate link. I get a small commission but you don’t pay any more – Adobe get a little bit less which I am sure they can spare.

And you get my thanks for helping me. Here is the link.

Less than a tenner a month here in the UK, and you get Photoshop thrown in too!

Phone or camera?

Well, I would like to again point you in the direction of an episode of my podcast. Check out my Photography Explained Podcast episode 141, Do I Really Need A Camera In 2022? Or Will My Phone Do Instead? for my take on this.

What do I do?

I edit my photos of buildings in Lightroom. I remove stuff in Photoshop. Well I used to. And I change the skies using Luminar.

And I only edit the photos that I am going to do something with. And I keep it real, trying to show every building accurately and to its best.

That is my job – to show a building at it realistic best.

What if you want to do more editing to your photos?

Fine – if you want to go further than I do with my editing then go for it. It really depends what the photos are for.

If the photos are for a client, do not do this unless they have asked for more. For client work, what I do is process my photos to show a building at it’s realistic best. And that is it. I have never been asked by a client to any more editing than that.

What am I talking about here? Well anything beyond what I do, and anything that changes the photos from a realistic representation of a building to something else.

Like I say there is nothing wrong with this, just be honest about what you have done, and do not try to pass these photos off as realistic.

I don’t do this but this does not mean that you can’t, just remember what I said above.

And that is the perfect place to stop writing – I like that.

Right, that is me done, just a few other things that I want to tell you.

My course – How To Become A Real Estate Photographer

I have created a course which you can find out more about here. My style of course, no frills, no bull, just me telling you everything that you need to know to become a real estate photographer, and no more.

The Photography Explained Podcast

I mentioned an episode that relates to this post. Now I want to tell you about my small but perfectly formed podcast.

I am the creator and all things at the splendid Photography Explained Podcast. In my podcast I explain one photographic thing per episode in plain English without the irrelevant details in less than, well less than 27 (ish) minutes these days.

I talk about all aspects of photography in my podcast, and welcome questions from listeners that I love answering.

Related reading

Well there is loads of related reading on my website, but there area couple of posts that I want to bring to your attention.

Can you sell photos of buildings? Is it illegal?

50 Essential Photography Tips For Beginners Who Want To Photograph Buildings

My You Tube channel

Yes I have a You Tube channel, where I talk about what I have written on my blog. Check out the video for this post right here.

Again no frills, no bull, just me telling you the stuff that you need to know.

Get a weekly email from me to you

Yep, if you want to receive an email from me every week then fill in the form on this page – there will be one somewhere. And in return I will send you a splendid Lightroom thing, and you will receive my thoughts straight to your inbox on a Friday afternoon. Which is nice.

OK – how can I find out more about this stuff?

Simple.

Get in touch with me – email me – sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk

Get in touch, ask me a question that I can answer on my blog or podcast, or just say hi – it would be great to hear from you.

Thanks for visiting my small but perfectly formed website, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers from me Rick