Hi,

Looking at some of the photos, mainly those that have won awards and been published on this website, I wanted to improve my editing skills. I assume that even with equipment that is not top of the range, I can still achieve high-quality photos. My question may seem naive, but where else can I ask if not here? Can you recommend a good professional course in editing mainly black-and-white photos (I am thinking primarily of cityscape-style photos)? Or perhaps you could share your path to developing your experience and mastery in editing this type of photo? 

Best regards,
Andrzej

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Hi Andrzej,

You have asked a question without telling us which tools you have at your disposal. There lots of people on youtube (for example)  that have extensive courses. They may be general and not specific to what you are looking for. However, typing what you are looking to do into search on youtube will point you (hopefully) in the right direction. You can learn virtually everything on youtube.

You are correct. You do not need top of the range equipment to get a good photo. However it is always better to get a good photo in the first place. Take multiple images of the same subject with many different camera settings. Take from different vantage points and with different compositions. If you can, take the photographs at different time of the day.

Learn from others. If you see a good photograph you like, ask yourself how did this person achieve this? Try to emulate the best and compare your results with theirs. You will learn.

Andrzej,

If you post a photo to 'Critique Forum' by clicking 'Forums>Sections>Critique' the team of Senior Critics will be happy to share their editing techniques with you.  

David's suggestion to use Youtube tutorials is a good one.  There's a wealth of information there.  

For Photoshop basics, Adobe's book 'Classroom in a Book' is a good starting point.   Looking at your 1X gallery photos you may be far beyond the basics, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.  

. . . . Steven T. 

Hi David, 

Thank you for your reply.
From a technical standpoint, I use Photoshop and Lightroom for editing. 

You are right, of course, that there are many different courses on YouTube. There are so many that it can be overwhelming. The point is that I am looking for something that would methodically teach me to understand the process from start to finish in order to achieve the desired effect. 

I really like your approach to learning from others. I love looking for inspiration in the work of others. That's basically what motivated me to write this post. If I were to write specifically about what I mean, following this line of thinking, I would post links below to a few works that I saw here and that made a big impression on me, especially in the context of control in the post-production process.
https://1x.com/photo/1008640
https://1x.com/photo/1207733/search
https://1x.com/photo/1815812/search
My editing so far has been based solely on intuition, lacking a deeper understanding, which is why I am looking for something that would give me the opportunity to understand photo editing on a deeper level. Perhaps someone with extensive experience knows of a course that is worth recommending. 

Best regards and thank you again for your reply.
Andrzej

Hi David,

Thank you very much for your reply. Indeed, a ‘Critique Forum’ could be a good idea. As for a more methodical approach in the form of a course, I will of course search YouTube and hope I don't waste my whole life on it :) 
Thank you very much for recommending ‘Classroom in a Book’. I was looking for specific titles because I haven't used any books or courses so far and have been doing everything intuitively :)
Thanks a lot, best regards.
Andrzej

Hi Andrzej,

You’re absolutely right that editing can make or break a photograph. I want to recommend two educators who were instrumental for me early on: Ben Willmore and Aaron Nace. I discovered both during the early days of CreativeLive. Aaron later went on to found Phlearn.com, which offers a huge library of tutorials.

What stood out to me about both is how well they break things down. When I was starting out, a lot of courses felt like they expected me to already understand the tools. Ben and Aaron didn’t do that. They explained the basics of Photoshop and Lightroom in a way that made everything click. That foundation shaped the way I edit today.

I'm sure since then there's hundreds more educators out there but it's still where I would start. Hope that helps you get started in a more structured way.

Best regards,
Tammy Swarek, Senior Critic

Thanks a lot Tammy,

that's exactly the kind of advice I was looking for.

I quickly browsed through Phlearn.com and it's definitely a unique place, I think I'll devote more time to it.
Both names are worth noting and I thank you very much for them. 

So, I'm getting down to work :)

Best regards,

Andrzej