What a Perfect Namibia Shot Teaches Us About Editing With Restraint

What a Perfect Namibia Shot Teaches Us About Editing With Restraint

There’s a trap I fell into for years early in my photography practice: the better the shot, the more I felt compelled to edit it. Like somehow a stunning location deserved a dramatic edit to match. I’d crank the saturation, push the contrast, add a heavy preset, and walk away thinking I’d made it better. Spoiler: I hadn’t. I’d just made it louder. That’s exactly why I keep coming back to this tutorial from Thomas Heaton, where he walks through his processing workflow for a landscape image shot in Deadvlei, Namibia.