How I edit my photos without losing their soul

Beyond the streetlights

Editing, for me, has never been about transforming a photo into something else, but I rather think it’s an instrument to help the photo become what it already was. I know this might sound vague, but the idea is simple: when I look at one of my images, I am asking how I can remove what stands between the image and what I remember seeing.

I use Lightroom for almost everything and this is essentially my only editing tool. Yes, I do use Photoshop, but for other purposes (not for photography), but yes, I used it on a couple of occasions only, just to reach that result that Lightroom couldn’t achieve. Lightroom does what I need because my approach to editing is mainly based on refinement.

My philosophy has always been to avoid aggressive retouching because I don’t want to redesign the image, but to preserve its identity. Every photograph has a certain balance, a certain emotional temperature, and if you push too hard during editing, you destroy that balance.

The first part of my editing process is very simple: straightening the image, correcting vertical lines and removing lens distortions are normally the first things I do. In architecture shots, in particular, this is a crucial step, since architecture is extremely sensitive to these adjustments: a slightly tilted vertical line can introduce a subtle tension that makes the entire image feel unstable. Lightroom’s transform tools are incredibly effective here, and often a small correction is enough to make the image feel grounded again.

Then I take out what I don’t want to show in my image (if there’s any), so that means cropping when necessary. Once the structure is correct, I move on to light.

This is where editing becomes more personal I’d say, but still within very clear limits. I start with exposure, making small adjustments to ensure the image reflects the actual atmosphere of the moment. Well, I have to admit that sometimes my night shots come a bit too dark, so there are cases in which I have to push the exposure much higher, but luckily not that often.

Then I adjust contrast carefully, avoiding extremes, I don’t want the photo to become unnatural. For me too much contrast makes an image feel rigid and artificial, but yeah, at the same time you need to add it a bit of contrast, otherwise the image might feel weak. So, the goal is to preserve depth without exaggeration.

Highlights and shadows are equally important. I often reduce highlights slightly to recover information that would otherwise feel harsh or distracting and I open shadows to reveal details when needed.

Color, imperfections, and subtle enhancements

Color adjustments come next, but here is where you really risk to make a disaster with your shot if you don’t play carefully. I rarely make dramatic changes, I don’t want the photo to feel too “fake”, so, after adjusting the white balance (when needed), I may make subtle adjustments using vibrance rather than saturation, since vibrance tends to preserve natural relationships between colors. I also work selectively with color, sometimes enhancing blues or reds slightly, since these hues often define the atmosphere of night scenes, particularly in cities like Hong Kong, where neon and artificial lighting play a central role.

In Hong Kong especially, what really pops at night are the tones of blue and red mainly (sometimes yellow, other times magenta…), so, in those shots I push a bit the bar of those colors to make them come out from the shot, but still: one step more and you risk to make a mess, so better handle it wisely.

I also use gradients occasionally, especially when different areas of the image require different treatment.

In the example below, I played a bit with these tones and I decided to balance the mood of the image more on the blue tones, since I felt that this could be give the right mood to the image.

In this case I also decided to add a very light blue gradient to the whole image.

Beyond the Streetlights (Before and after)

Removing small imperfections is also part of the process when needed, but here too: it needs to be done with care. Dust spots or sensor marks are technical flaws and removing them does not change the meaning of the photograph. I normally try to avoid removing elements that belong to the scene, even if they are imperfect, but there are cases in which removing them it’s both inevitable or the wisest choice.

In this example below, I thought that the silhouette of the girl on the right distracts a lot, while keeping only the one on the left would have made the shot much more powerful. So, there was no other choice than removing the girl on the right and this was one of the few cases in which I transformed the photo quite radically, otherwise I prefer to keep the scene as it is as much as possible.

Dreaming in Color (Before and after)

Here I wanted to remove the silhouette of the second girl on the right: keeping it would have made the photo

much less powerful

There are situations where more substantial adjustments are necessary, particularly with night photography. Cities like Hong Kong are defined by light, but the camera doesn’t always capture that light in the same way the human eye sees it. Night images often appear less vibrant than the actual experience. In these cases, I work more carefully with exposure, shadows and the tone curve to restore depth and separation between elements.

Presets: handle them carefully

I have experimented with presets, like everyone else. They are convenient and sometimes they produce interesting results: however, I found out they can’t apply in all situations of course. So, most of the time, I find them too detached from the specific image I am working on. Presets impose a predefined interpretation and that interpretation not always aligns with the image you’re touching. I usually prefer to adjust each image individually, even if it takes more time. It is a slower process, but at least it fits to the image better than just a random preset.

Knowing when to stop is the most important part of the entire process. It is easy to continue adjusting endlessly, chasing some abstract idea of perfection. But photography, at least for me, has never been about perfection: the goal is not to improve reality.

If editing becomes too visible, the photograph loses its credibility, it stops feeling like a memory and it looks clearly fake. I want my images to remain connected to the moment they came from.

Editing is simply the final step in making sure that connection remains intact.