There are tons of photos available on the internet and a lot of photographers generously share their method of processing the photos.  I love to get insights into how others edit to the specific mood of their photo.  The basic processing may be quite similar but the creative touches a photographer adds to the photo speaks to that specific mood.

I started with this photo shot with a Nikon D90 and 35mm lens and settings of 1/125th of a second at f/1.8 and ISO 200.  There are many different programs with which to edit a photo and my program of choice is Lightroom.  I import photos into Lightroom with a basic preset that I made which adds a bit of noise reduction and sharpening to the photo, applies a basic lens correction specific to the lens I used for the shot, and sets the camera calibration to "camera neutral".  This gives a beginning point for my photos...my straight out of camera.

My next step is to apply edits specific to the "mood" I'm going for in my photo.  This one was shot on a rainy, cold day and that was what I was looking for in the photo.  To accomplish this I shot it about 2 stops underexposed to increase the shadows.  I wanted it in closer so my first step was to crop the photo.   With my still life shots, I'm preferring the square crop.



Next I applied a tone curve which would bring down the highlights and darken shadows even more, as well as apply just a touch of haze.