The first stage of creating a printable image is having a workable negative. Obviously we’re all using digital, but the principals stay the same. It’s not so much “get it right in camera” as “start with a printable digital file”.

Step one is shooting everything in RAW. It’s a bit of a strange thing to say as EVERY digital camera shoots RAW. The difference is that if you have your settings on JPG then your camera decides how the image will look before compressing it.

Now as much as I’m a fan, I’m not going to let Mr Fujio Mitarai or his team decide how my images are going look. Back in the day when I was shooting film I processed my own negatives so why should I now process my own digital negatives? You might not have processed your own negatives but was that perhaps that you didn’t have the means to? Did you send your negs to a pro lab or to Boots? If you used the later and you’re still shooting JPGs then obviously the quality of your finished product isn’t your priority. There’s nothing terribly wrong with that as it might suit the type of photography you’re doing.

If however you’re using a pro lab to print your images and shooting in JPG then somewhere along the way you’ve missed the point. There is no fathomable reason why a ‘professional’ photographer would not shoot RAW images.

Step two to get an exposure with roughly no more the a couple of stops difference between the shadows and highlights. Obviously we need to keep detail in both.

And that’s all we have to worry about in camera really! You can’t create a high dynamic range image in camera so don’t bother trying….. just creating the beginnings of a workable digital negative.

Step three is to properly process your RAW files to create a workable digital file…… I’ve explained this using Camera RAW but that’s not to say that the same thing can’t be done using Aperture or Lightroom.

Enjoy the video!