Why Your Edits Look Yucky the Next Day

Do you ever come back to your edits the next day and gasp with horror? 😱

The color is way off and you don’t understand how it happened!

Don’t worry, this happens to nearly every photographer and photo editor I’ve talked to. It’s completely normal even if it is annoying. To combat this phenomenon let’s first explore WHY this happens and then I'll share some solutions.

👉🏻 Reason #1 - Your starting point was too warm or too cool.

If the white balance of the photo is extreme, it’s going to mess with your vision. When the starting point is too warm or cool, you will think that you’ve reached neutral before you actually have. It's a trick!

🌟 Solution #1 - Look away for 5 minutes.

If the photo started out really warm or cool, fix it as close as you can in the first pass. Then, walk away and do something else for 5 minutes to reset your eyes. Do another pass with those photos and you should be closer to your goal.

Also, you could change the background in Lightroom from the default medium gray to white so you have a reference of what pure white looks like.

👉🏻 Reason #2 - Eye strain/color fatigue.

Another reason you might see editing that looks off the next morning is because you might have been editing for too long.

Are your eyeballs stinging or itching? Are they watering? Or maybe they just feel tired?

If you are editing at night in a dark room, that will bring on the eye strain faster too.

(Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do though, right?)

🌟 Solution #2 - Take a break!

Your eyes need a break from time to time. Some recommend taking a 5 minute break every 20 minutes.

I probably take a break every 40-60 minutes when I'm in the zone. I do get eye strain doing that, dang it! So don't do what I do.

And try to remember to blink more often! 😳

👉🏻 Reason #3 - Ambient light in the room.

The room you’re in can also affect how you see colors on your computer.

Is the artificial light in the room warm or cool? Do you have colored walls or curtains that are causing the light to have a slight color cast?

Both of those can change how you see color when you’re editing.

🌟 Solution #3 - Edit with natural light in a neutral room.

If you can edit in a room with natural light from a window or several windows, that’s ideal.

And you don’t have access to natural light, you could change out your lightbulbs to natural light bulbs to help.

If you have a boldly colored wall in the room where you edit, you could either move to a room that has more neutral colored walls or get some paint! ;)

Happy editing,

Erika