One of the key things I try to get across in my teaching is that it's a mistake to think of post-production as something that just comes after you take a shot. In a literal sense of course it's clearly something that occurs later – you can't post-produce a shot that doesn't exist – but, in terms of the photographic process as a whole, a better understanding of what's possible during post-production can change the way you shoot.

This image is a good example. It was taken during my Creating Dramatic Images workshop in Austin, and while the original has virtually no intrinsic merit, the final version is a lot more interesting. From a purist's point of view then, the shot wasn't worth taking: it's dull, flat, and uninteresting. With the addition of a few masked curves, a big boost in saturation, and some detail enhancement using Topaz Detail, it's considerably improved. In other words then, because I could evaluate the original scene and visualise how it could look, I knew the shot was worth taking, and while it's not going to win any awards, it is a good illustration of this point :)

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

12.57pm on 6/2/10 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 35mm f/4.5 1/160 aperture priority +1 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail no