7 Professional Landscape Photographers Editing the same raw photo: Which one do you think is the best?

As long as I have owned Photoshop, I have steadfastly believed that post-production skills are the differentiator of most photographers. Here, we see seven professional landscape photographers given a single raw image to work with, and the end result is not only pretty amazing, but incredibly different.

When I bought my first camera more than three decades ago, I was immediately mesmerized by its mechanics and capabilities. As we transitioned from film cameras to digital cameras and from DSLRs to mirrorless cameras, my curiosity about the camera’s features at hand grew larger and larger. So I think if you really love cameras and photography, it shouldn’t take too long to understand important camera features or basic rules of photography. However, what sets everyone apart is their ability in post-production. It was evident when Ansel Adams worked his magic in a darkroom, and it is still evident today in the digital world.

There is no better example of that than when you give a group of skilled photographers a single raw file to work with and ask them to come up with their own interpretation of the final image. That’s exactly what Christian Mohrle did when he allowed seven renowned landscape photographers to work on a raw file he provided. It is interesting to see how these professional landscape photographers handle the images: some stay true to the original file, while others go into fantasy realms. Personally, I like Antonio Valente’s edit best. How about you?