The art of just enough post processing

Øyvind Nordhagen
11 min readJul 13, 2024

I get a lot of questions about how I post process my images, most frequently about which Fujifilm recipe I have used for a certain image. As I explained in a past article, I actually do not use recipes for the final image that much at all. I shoot raw+JPG but I mostly discard the JPGs. So I thought I would take you through the overall steps in my raw editing process.

My Fujifilm recipes are perhaps more subtle than others and my raw post processing is similar. I’m still very much in the process of learning though. My taste will likely continue to evolve, but my philosophy will probably remain constant and it’s this:

Post processing is a communication device, never a subject in itself.

Let me unpack that slightly. This is not a guide about getting a specific look or cinematic grading. I post process my images based on what the image needs, what the point of the image is, and where the viewer should focus.

But every raw file needs to be developed. With that in mind let’s return to the image at the top of the page, which I will use as the sample image for this guide. It is a photo from a project that I am currently working on about the oldest of Oslo’s tram cars, the SL79, which are about to be taken out of service. That little piece of backstory is important because it is going to influence several of…

--

--

Øyvind Nordhagen

Photographer based in Oslo. I write about photographic technique and editing.