Tastes Change.
I’ve made editing decisions in the past that didn’t age well. At the time, they felt like solid choices, but after a very long time editing photos, you start to see what makes an image truly timeless… and what was just a filter fad or a phase.
I recently got organized and finally pulled together all my scattered hard drives and consolidated every image I had ever taken, both smartphone and digital camera images alike, and combined them into one safely backed-up, chronological archive that I can access from anywhere. It’s the first time I’ve had a complete view of everything photography in one place.
Having this kind of access has let me revisit old RAW files I hadn’t seen in years, alongside the original JPEG edits I once considered “final.”
My perspectives and tastes have changed so I wanted to give a more experienced set of eyes an opportunity to look at the images that took them, and see if my original edit and even the original image, still hold up.
So I decided to run a fun little challenge for myself - a Photo Remix.
I’m taking an image from the archive that I feel I did dirty in the original edit and I’ll give a fresh edit that more align to my taste and style today. I also want to discuss what I could have done differently on the technical side, albeit exposure, framing, etc.
I have 3 versions of the same image.
The straight out of camera JPEG from the RAW file.
The original color edit from 2011.
A fresh color edit from 2025.
I’ll break down what works, what doesn’t, and what (in hindsight) I should have done differently.
Canon Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM
ƒ/2
1/200 s
135 mm
ISO 50
Straight Out of Camera Image:
The original straight out of camera image definitely had some magic going for it. The lighting was excellent, and the bokeh? Dreamy. That halo effect from the sun catching the couples hair gave it a sort of cinematic glow. I think the colors skew a little green overall, but it’s a good starting point. The composition is good, not great. I should have included more of the tree they were leaning against to the left of the frame, to not only give context, but also kill some of the slightly dead space to the right of the frame. The sky had some clipped highlights that pulled focus in the wrong ways, and their body language? Love the embrace and the kiss, but his right hand placement gives hover hand. Don’t worry, my guy, I’ve been there too.
2011 Edit:
I mean, it’s a 2011 vibe? I flattened the dynamic range and lost most of the shadows on the couples faces. Throw in a pretty bright background and midground and the image just looks fake and flat. For what little shadows that are left, I turned purple. I’m also not sure why I thought that shade of sickly green was okay for the grass when the original image had such better colors. I might have taken the original image in the higher key edit style because I wanted to reduce, what I found to be at the time, distracting shadows or the slight red hue because of the sunlight reflecting from her skin.
2025 Color Edit:
In the latest edit I kept the natural dynamic range of the original image by reworking the lighting with the goal of preserving the shadows on the couple’s faces, and embracing that reddish hue that can appear on lighter skin tones when sunlight reflects off it. Since this warm tone on his nose and forehead, and on her shoulder and hair, is one of the few places that color appears in the photo, I think it immediately draws your eye to the focal point: the couple. I also shifted the grass toward a more yellow-gold tone and generally leaned into a much warmer overall palette than the original edit. At the same time, I tried to tame some of the distracting “glowiness” in the foreground grass by dialing back the saturation considerably. I think this results in a much more pleasant to view image than the first edit, as it brings it the colors closer to realism and isn’t so “heavy” of an edit.