Photography & post-production training for photographers

There are two types of clipping you probably try to avoid introducing into your images during post-production: luminosity clipping (when the brightest areas of an image become white, or when the darkest areas become black), and channel clipping (when the data within an individual channel becomes compromised). Both forms - unless you've made a deliberate decision to clip your data - are something to avoid.

In this article I will show you how to get Photoshop to provide automatic and real-time feedback on any shadow, highlight, and channel highlight clipping within your images.

Over the years I've had quite a few protracted and often heated discussions about the role of post-production in photography, normally with people who seem to have a rooted objection to images that have been radically transformed.

"But that's not photography, that's just Photoshop!" has been a relatively common criticism of some of my work.

It's a complex debate - especially as it plays out differently within different areas of photography - and I certainly don't intend to provide a complete answer here, but an image I've been working on recently prompted the following.

Back in February I was asked to judge an architectural photography competition sponsored by Goodman Business Parks. There were two prizes up for grabs - aSony NEX-5R Compact System Camera for the overall winner, and a 50 GBP Amazon UK Voucher for the runner up - and we received a whole bunch of great entries.