Introduction

Sometimes show ideas come from the simplest of realisations. In this case, that I need to remember that the sliders in the photos app go both ways!

My typical style is quite punchy — strong contrast, colours, and textures. That means that my editing process almost always involves me adding more, so I’m almost always moving the sliders in the Photos app to the right. Even when I back off something suggested by the auto button, I still end up with zero or positive values, so at the end of my edit, all the sliders are in the middle or to the right.

I like the look I’ve evolved over the years, and not because I’m editing to please some algorithm, but because I’ve learned ways to get my shots to look the way I want them to look.

So What’s the Problem?

In recent years I’ve been inspired to expand my photography beyond my typical style. I’m not trying to replace it, like I said, it’s very ‘me’, but I want to augment it with some more variety.

I’m not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg, but this desire is completely intertwined with my recent adoption of annual challenges (for more see the previous episode).

So with all that context, something that should be blindingly obvious hit me the other day as I was struggling to get a shot looking ‘right’ — the sliders go the other way too!

In some respects the specifics here are very much a ‘me’ problem, I need to remember I can turn down the saturation, vibrancy, contrast, and definition. But I suspect many or even most photographers fall into similar patterns, and could do with a reminder to remember that all the sliders go both ways!

The Trigger

This is the shot I was editing when I had my realisation:

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This tranquil Irish winter scene just wasn’t coming together. What I was seeing on my screen just wasn’t evoking the feel the real scene did.

I nearly binned it as yet another failed experiment (remember by advice to shoot freely and cull mercilessly), but something stopped me. I left it on my camera roll and got on with my errands. I’d snapped it on my way to the supermarket, and I was noodling on it as I shopped. I had my epiphany in the produce isle — the iPhone’s camera and the photos app auto algorithm made and then amplified the same mistake — too much colour!

The answer was to zero out the vibrancy the auto button suggested, and then to take the saturation boost it suggested and not just zero it, but keep sliding, to remove some of my usually beloved saturation.

The end result of doing the opposite of what I usually do — a near-reject transformed into a beloved keeper!

Hindsight

Having realised I need to remember to consider the possibility that sometimes I need less of some things rather than more, and more of others rather than less, I started to think of some of my older shots that stand out in my memory for being just a little different to my usual style.

I’ve Turned Down Colour Before

One on what I think are my very best shots of 2025 is the one I chose to use of the front cover of the notebooks I had printed as gifts and for my own use this year:

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The drama of this very brooding sky was just not landing right with my normal editing style, and thankfully I had the impulse to turn the colour down rather than up, and the image just sang!

I’ve Suppressed Highlight Detail Before

One of the shots that stand out to me most for really being different to my previous work during my 2024 monochrome challenge was this view of a church spire vanishing into the mist:

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I normally work hard when editing to protect highlight detail by darkening the highlights. This time I wanted to do the opposite — smooth out the fog, so I actually brightened the highlights.

I’ve Intentionally Used Unnatural White-balance Before

One of the most eye-catching shots from my 2025 Colour as Subject challenge is this one of ornamental grass at sunset:

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I generally put a lot of effort into correcting my white balance, that way, when I crank up the colour it looks natural and vibrant, not cartoonishly childish. But this time, I chose to lean into the feel of sunset, and I pushed the warmth beyond natural, then cranked up the colour.

Final Thoughts

I hope I’ve inspired you to be more aware of the slider you reflexively move the same way each time, and to at least consider sliding the other way sometimes.