Post-processing is where the magic happens in food photography, but it can also be a source of frustration. Whether it's perfecting the white balance, eliminating unwanted shadows, or making the colours pop, this phase often presents challenges that can slow down even the experienced photographers.
If you've ever struggled with getting your images just right or felt overwhelmed by the endless possibilities of adjustments, this post is for you. Steal the expert tips of my 84 creator friends and elevate your post-processing game!
If you are hungry to learn about another subjects, make sure to check the previous episodes of my Pro Tips blog series here.
What is their pro tip for post-processing?
Before you scroll any further, open your go-to editing software, so you can follow the methods mentioned in this inspiring read!
"Establish a great workflow."
Shiela Cruz - CPG photographer and stylist
"Lightroom...and sleep on it. What seems like a good idea at first, the next day you won't like it. That's when you can perfect it and spot mistakes."
Anita Zsirmik - food blogger, content creator
"I like to give my photos a day at least, before editing. There is something about resting your eyes before diving into editing a set of photos."
Anja Burgar - commercial and editorial food photographer
"I like to look at shots as I go and rate the images. That way I can go back to see what were my favorites (so I will edit those) and not have to revisit the entire project."
Kristina Cadelina - food photographer, blogger
"I always have my camera on a tripod, so I easily can stack various exposures in post-production. That makes it easier to take a highlight from one exposure, a shadow from another exposure etc. and add it all to the final image."
Mikkel Jul Hvilshøj - photographer
"Outsourcing, you don't have to do everything yourself."
Mika Levälampi - photographer
"Start with a Good Capture: The foundation of great post-processing is a well-exposed and well-composed image. Ensure that you have a strong base to work with before diving into editing, and shoot in RAW."
Melissa - photographer, blogger
"Do a first and second selection before editing anything. If you have tons of shots, sometimes it can be worth sending a contact sheet of your initial selection to the client and allowing them to pick the final shots - this can take the pain out of selecting or having to fine tune too many images."
Jason Wain - photographer, videographer
Photo by © Jason Wain
"There are so many... If I have to choose one, I'd say always make sure attention goes to your main object in the picture. That can be done by bringing more light, color, sharpness to it as well as "cleaning" unnecessary dirt, shine etc. in the image."
Kamile Kave - photographer
"My pro tip in post-processing is to approach it as a means of enhancing the image, rather than completely transforming it. Focusing on subtle adjustments that improve the overall composition, color balance, and tonal range. Using tools like contrast, saturation, and sharpening judiciously to maintain a natural and balanced look. Additionally, taking advantage of local adjustments to selectively enhance specific areas of the image for more precise editing."
Sari Spåra - entrepreneur, food and wine photographer, recipe creator
"A valuable post-processing tip is to perform a preliminary selection of images while shooting, especially if you're shooting tethered, as this makes the process easier. After the initial selection, take a break before revisiting your work. Returning with fresh eyes allows for a more objective and critical review of your images."
Peggy Cormary - photographer
"I like very saturated colours so what I like to do is push my colours until they look over-saturated and then slowly pull them down until they look natural but still pop. Same with the texture slider."
Snorri Guðmundsson - photographer, recipe developer, product development manager in the food industry
"As a graphic designer for many years, I retouch my photos. If you can't - find someone that really understands YOU and will make what YOU want. Know your goal, then the rest is a little knowledge of the tools to reach it. Oh, and a good monitor always makes a difference. That is a good investment for image-editing.."
Milena Ugrinova (Mim) - food and product photographer
" Use a versatile editing program and familiarize yourself with it. Use a calibrated monitor or use a retina screen for the most faithful possible representation of colors. Practice with photos, follow webinars about the latest program updates to stay as up-to-date as possible. Don't be fooled by photographers who say they don't do post-processing: post-processing can make your photo so much more powerful and it also makes you more flexible. Consider, for example, photo stacking: this way you make the image razor-sharp at all desired points. I personally use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop."
Maaike Zaal - food- and beverage photographer
"Play some music to while away the time and don't rush it. Take advantage of the ability to copy editing processes from one image to another but do treat every image individually too. Tweak the settings you've just copied from the previous image to make the photo you're now editing sing."
Jane Coupland - food photographer, food blogger
"I edit all shoots in Capture One Pro. I am aggressive and fast with my first edits. I normally cut out 50% of the shoot in the first see-through. If in doubt, there is no doubt: DELETE"
Matt Wilson - photographer
Photo by © Matt Wilson
"Firstly delete all unusable or double-up frames to reduce the number of shots. File clutter just slows your system down. I then use a combination of Capture One and Photoshop."
Jules Wilson-Haines - photographer, stylist
"After editing, come back to the photos the following day (if you have time) to refine the edits. I find a fresh look always helps me balance the overall look of the set."
Sandy Wood - photographer
"Work with RAW and make snapshots during the editing process so if you overdo the post you can go back to a previous version or if you are not sure about eg. the color grading, you can create several styles."
Andrea Köver - food photographer
Photo by © Andrea Köver
"Rule number one for good post-production - calibrate your computer monitor."
Anna Ilieva-Alikaj - photographer
"Get good photos during the shot to minimise the processing time. I edit with Photoshop and have a number of steps to go through for every photo, something that I’ve come up with through practice."
Natalia Ashton - nutritionist, photographer, author
"Make sure that you know what your customer wants, and the type of business it it. I edit depending on what my customer is looking for. That being said, when I start to edit, I create a base edit on the first photo, and then copy the base edit to the rest of the photos. Then I just tweak exposure, or shadows on each image. This helps me edit a lot of photos really fast."
Robert Alvarez - photographer
"I use Lightroom and ensure I flag every image I want to edit before I start. Copy and pasting editing settings across multiple images is also super helpful."
Leeanne Mason - food photographer, photo chef, food stylist, content creator
Photo by © Leeanne Mason
"Identify the colour that the client wants, I will normally further sharpen the images in post-processing and during export."
Victor Chin - food photographer
Photo by © Victor Chin
"Don't edit right after the shoot, give it a day or so to 'reset' your eyes, you might find things you don't notice the 1st time around."
Emilie Dorange - photographer, designer
"To have a good editing program. There is so much to learn every day, with each image edit. I use Capture One, and I could not be happier with it."
Kata Endrődi - photographer
Photo by © Kata Endrődi
"Take your time. Don’t try to do everything in one day. Sometimes looking at the edited photos the next day helps you find mistakes."
Julia Konovalova - food photographer, food stylist, content creator
"Most of the times I edit my own work, but when I get extremely busy I pass the work on to retouchers to finish. I don't get scared of challenges in Photoshop, if I don't know something I just watch some YouTube videos about it. In Photoshop my best friend usually Frequency Separation, I use it for almost everything all the time, very good to fix textures of food, straighten out dresses or fixing blemishes on face."
Tibor Galamb - photographer, director
Photo by © Tibor Galamb
"Labelling your masks. I learned this from Rachel Korinek in her Capture One course. Taking the time to label masks is like a road map. If something just isn't working you can easily look back and find the mask label and turn them on or off to see if that is having the suitable effect. This is a huge time saver."
Mary Turner - commercial food photographer, stylist, chef
"Select a photo to do your initial edits on, then copy and paste the edits to the other images in the series to save time."
Emily Miller - food photographer, recipe developer
"Cull your images before starting to edit. I find that seeing that I need to edit 50+ images from the same shoot can be way more overwhelming than seeing than if I only have 10-15 images. Also, that way you can be a lot more mindful and intentional with your edits on each image."
Murielle Banackissa - food photographer, food stylist, cookbook author and blogger
Photo by © Murielle Banackissa
"Do not use too string filters."
Sanja Alisic - blogger, food stylist
"Try to do as much as you can in camera, so you have to edit just basic things."
Nicolas Newmark - professional photographer
"What best works for me is to establish a day for editing, that way I can edit without distractions."
Karen Loza - food photographer and stylist
"For me the post-process is what I like the most and I was a retoucher for many years before being a photographer. Using presets are a way to fasten things up and since I'm "old school" I just do the basic adjustments in CameraRaw/Lightroom. I do most of my editing in Photoshop (just because I'm a lot faster at it)."
Ulrica Krii - photographer, blogger
Photo by © Ulrica Krii
"Kill your darlings! This has more to do with selecting than editing, but by doing this you'll decrease your editing time. It is really not necessary to edit 5 nearly the same images. Pick the best one."
Anoeska Vermeij - photographer
Photo by © Anoeska Vermeij
"Do an intense first pass clean up, then set the image aside and come back to it after working on a different image. You'll always catch more that needs to be fixed and might catch little mistakes in your masks. Never just retouch and send it out. Always close your editing software for at least an hour (if not over night) before taking a last look and THEN delivering it to your client."
Suzanne Clements - photographer
"Often times in editing food photos, less is more. Oversaturating, oversharpening and going too heavy-handed with edits can be more problematic compared to erring on the side of more subtlety."
Joanie Simon - photographer
"We will usually do color adjustments and white balance in Capture One and use Photoshop for clean up and any further detail retouching."
Aline Ponce & Mike Hulswit - professional photographers
"You have to know the programs you are using. I love Photoshop and Lightroom. It is not necessary to know a lot, but the few things you know you have to know very well."
Emese Balog - food blogger
"Maintain a consistent editing style across your portfolio. Develop efficient workflows, use presets for speed and uniformity, and pay attention to detail to ensure a polished and professional final image."
Maxine Lock - photographer
Photo by © Maxine Lock
"Play! Slide that slider a little more left or right and see what happens and always go away and come back with fresh eyes."
Sam Robson - food photographer
"Invest in Lightroom or Capture One, and allocate time every week to practice. Keep an eye out for free tips from other food photography creatives who are teaching too."
Birgit Mayled - photographer
"Do an initial process right after the shoot, and then give it a once over one or two days later to approach the shots with a fresh mind."
Dorothy Porker - food writer, photographer
"To make sure your editing is the way you envisioned, don't edit in one sitting. Edit the photo and give it break. Come back to it in a few hours and relook at it. When we edit for long stretches at a time, we begin to see colours differently and not realistically. Giving that break allows our eyes to come back to normal and see colours as they are, allowing us to make adjustments based on true colours."
Dyutima Jha - food photographer, food stylist, podcaster
"Try to make presets for creating an easy start, so you can work from there, it will save you a lot of time and you see straight away which photos have potential."
Maurizio Previti - photographer
"There is minimal processing in my work as I spend a lot of time setting up the light and creating the composition to immediately capture the appetising flavours of the food and emphasise the details in the shot. In post-processing, I only add sharpening and highlight key details while striving to keep the naturalness of the food depicted intact."
Halyna Vitiuk - food photographer
"Organize, edit, and process all files according to the job specifications. Be meticulous in file management, and securely store the final raw files in a designated and protected location."
Alessandra Zanotti - food photographer, food stylist
Photo by © Alessandra Zanotti
"Never edit much your images. Editing is meant to enhance the look and feel of an image - not to completely alter it."
Elisa Marina Orani - food photographer
"Usually each photo requires individual settings and adjustments, but there is a base that is the same (this determines your style). For the base processing, I use scripts/presets that speed up post-processing."
Mihails Pavlenko - food and product photographer
"Use software that works best for your budget, your client and your workflow methodology. It’s about creating an experience, a moment that captures the senses and is not fleeting, rather than just a sharp picture."
Shwetha Elaina - food photographer and stylist
"Do not overdo it! try to bring out the natural look and colors of the food, and then do the editing to support your story and your theme and use LR or PS as post-processing apps."
Anjala Fernando - food photographer, food stylist
"Don't go too hard on post-processing and changing the entire image. I prefer to use the tone curve to add contrast to my image. Also, make sure the subject pops out well."
Gouthami Yuvarajan - food and product photographer
"Batch edit to save time by syncing or copying and pasting settings to multiple images. Make sure you only copy non-mask settings if things have drastically changed in each shot. This is most effective when the images all have the same lighting and colours. You'll still probably have to tweak the settings here and there for each image and make image specific changes, masking, etc., but it does speed things up."
Felicia Chuo - photographer
"For me personally, I try to get as much "right" during the shoot. I also have a few saved presets that I'll apply to my images. I'll label them "hard light" "moody" "light and bright" "natural" and apply them as necessary. After that, I'll adjust accordingly."
Anisa - photographer, recipe developer
"Don't be afraid of graphic programs for professionals. That's a lot of possibilities. Pay attention to colors, highlights and shadows and white balance, because it can ruin the most beautiful photo."
Monika Grudzińska - photographer, food stylist
"Well, good question. My post-processing process is always a little bit different. But what facilitate me the post-processing is a good setting of my camera (ISO and white balance especially). In post-processing you can make really magic, but you need to have good basic photo. What I am using with all my captures are basic presets I made, and I am always playing with textures and contrast, highlights, colors adjustment and vignetting. I also like to use masking tools."
Alena Prichystalova - photographer, blogger
"Get the lighting and white balance right already in the camera. Almost every time you say to yourself “I can fix that in post” you just made yourself work an extra hour or two."
Veera Rusanen - photographer
"Minimal is more. I have learned from my own experience that minimal post-processing you have to do is better for the quality of photos."
Sangita Bhavsar - food blogger, photographer, stylist
"Take a break from time to time in order to have fresh eyes and to post-process correctly your photos."
Massiel Zadeh Habchi - food photographer and stylist
"The most important points in post-production are color temperature, exposure, highlights, shadows and mid-tones, and contrast. What a picture looks like in the end is often a matter of taste. Here you should think about what you want to express. Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop are good assistants here."
Carolin Strothe - professional photographer, food stylist, stylist, art director, author
"Tethering has been life changing. It allows me to check the images just right after I shot it and to select the ones I’ll edit thank to a color flag. It makes the step of sorting out the images so much faster."
Constance Ibañez - food stylist, food photographer, food event creator
Photo by © Constance Ibañez
"Schedule post-processing into your calendar. I get into the flow best when I dedicate a full day for editing only."
Saara - photographer
"I like to apply my preset when batch editing my work as a basic template to start working on each image. This saves so much more time and gets the necessary steps done in batches."
M. Aimee Tan - food photographer, videographer, stylist, content creator, recipe developer
"Get the shot as close as possible in camera to what you want. Make sure you pay attention to your lighting while you’re shooting for the best possible results. Don’t overdo the post-processing, use it to enhance what’s already there."
Lauren Short - food photographer
"I love the use of presets, for a fast and consistent post-processing."
Marika Cucuzza - food photographer, content creator, recipe developer, food stylist
"There are so many. The main one is: start with a clear idea in mind, how you want your final photo to look like, what you want it to evoke, the message the emotions… and based on that you’ll be able to color grade very easily."
Roberta Dall’Alba - photographer
"I always place as much emphasis on follow-up work as on the rest of the photography. I use Photoshop and Lightroom. I think these two programs serve the needs of a photographer perfectly. Nowadays it’s a big trend to use Presets and set filters, which is okay, as it often provides a unified look for the website. However I pay special attention that these presets never change the real appearance and color of the food in an excessive way."
Liliána Tóth - food photographer
Photo © Liliána Tóth
"This is going to be subjective advice, as everyone has their own style of editing, but my personal advice is always to keep the white balance as natural as possible. I find that scenes with a natural white balance show the colours of the food best and look the most appetising. The second thing is to pay attention to the details and work them out in post-production - remove any unnecessary elements from the scene, such as stains, spots, unnecessary crumbs, defects in the product. I myself am always quite pedantic about every detail so that nothing distracts from the main character of the photograph."
Katarzyna Anders - food and product photographer and stylist, recipe developer, content creator, blogger
"Leave editing till the next day, or just don't edit on the same day when you shoot. Your eyes will be well rested, fresh and you'll be more efficient and your work will look better. But I do make sure to back everything up as soon as I get back to my office. Even though I shoot tethered and one copy of the files goes straight into my external hard disk, I still like to make sure everything is safe and secure, waiting to be processed in the following days. Also, create a good working system of archiving and backing up all your valuable data, something that works for you, multiple copies on various locations (online, sand boxed, cloud, hard drives in a few different places etc). Not paying enough attention to backing up regularly could really cost you in the future."
Andrea Gralow - professional commercial and editorial food photographer, videographer
"Getting everything right in the first place, i.e. while shooting. Always shoot in Raw format, so you can play with those colours. Always use a tripod so you can mask most of the stuff in that image. Using a tripod is a must, you can play with light and then mask in the post, thereby creating a masterpiece which you will adore."
Indrajeet Nishad - food photographer and stylist
"Make sure to work on a calibrated monitor. That way your colours and contrast have the best chance to look the way you intend them to look."
Julia Wharington - photographer, videographer, stylist
"When you think you're done, take a break and look at things once more with "fresh eyes"."
Jella Bertell - food blogger, photographer
"Fine-tune exposure, contrast, and colors for a natural look, avoiding excessive edits. Consistency is key – establish a style and apply it across your work to create a cohesive visual identity."
Anna Janecka - photographer, food stylist
"Try a few different edits to see what works best for the photo and the mood you are looking for. Use local edits. If applicable return to your final edit a day later with fresh eyes. It may surprise you how much differently you see a photo after you take some rest from working on it."
Mojca Klepec - food photographer
"Aligning the photo with your partner's current portfolio or adhering to requested corporate identity guidelines is crucial. Before diving into post-production, it's essential to carefully check the requirements. Consider factors such as whether the photos lean towards warm or cool color palettes, if they employ strong contrast or embrace a smoother and softer aesthetic. These details serve as the foundation for your post-production process, ensuring that the final result seamlessly integrates with the desired visual style."
Melinda Bernáth - food photographer
"PRESETS
You either love them or hate them. Personally, I'm a fan because they save me time. I've curated an extensive collection that aligns with my photography style and lighting setups. When editing a series, I kickstart the process by the applying preset that best matches the desired end results. This serves as a solid foundation before fine-tuning each photograph with additional edits for the perfect touch."
Anita Zivkovic - food photographer, photography coach
Photo by © Anita Zivkovic
"When post-processing, I wait a few hours (and preferably a day) to study the images I have edited before using them. Often I find I will make changes the second time I study them."
Terri Salminen - blogger, food culture researcher
"Use Photoshop Beta to cover the imperfections."
Harsha Sipani - commercial photographer
"Make sure you maintain a consistent style of your own. I do that by creating presets, and then making minor tweaks as my images need."
Yashaswita - photographer
"Don't put hours of work in 100% if the end result's to be used in 10% size…"
David Pahmp - commercial advertising photographer
"Always take a break while editing to rest your eyes and come with a new perspective to your photos."
Dina Hassan - food photographer, videographer
Photo & BTS by © Dina Hassan
"I have my favourite presets I always use and then adjust to get the perfect look for the image."
Monika Jonaite - food- and product photographer, food stylist, recipe developer
"If the project you are working on must align with your client's existing image bank, make sure to do thorough research on their recent assets. While presets can work well in certain scenarios and genres, I believe, that if you start being reliant on presets, your creative problem-solving skills will suffer - just like a muscle weakens when you stop using it.
When I have multiple selects of the same scene, I use Lightroom or Capture One to finalise one image that represents the whole group. I make basic adjustments for a balanced tonal contrast, name the adjustment layers, and then copy all settings to the rest of the images. The other 50% of my post-processing magic is happening in Photoshop, where I finalise composites, do any image manipulation, apply complex adjustments, retouch and sharpen images before export.
You can also outsource post-processing if you lack time / working on basic skills."
Reka Csulak - photographer, mentor
Photo by © Reka Csulak
