Chapter 25 — Key Takeaways
The screenshot-and-reread card for mobile editing. Mostly tables and checklists — the prose is in index.md.
The one sentence to carry: a phone is a complete darkroom; the negative is the score, the print is the
performance, and you can give the whole performance on the glass in your hand.
The core definitions
| Term | In one line |
|---|---|
| Mobile RAW | Relatively unprocessed sensor data on a phone (ProRAW / DNG) — flat on purpose, holding recoverable highlight/shadow latitude the JPEG already spent. |
| Local adjustment | A change applied to a selected part of the frame (not the whole image) to direct the eye. |
| Preset | A saved bundle of edit settings applied to another image in one tap — sets style, not exposure. |
| Export/resize | Producing a new, flattened delivery copy from your non-destructive edit at a chosen size/format for a specific destination. |
| Sharpening for output | A final, destination-specific sharpening pass that counteracts resize-softening (web) or ink spread (print) — separate from develop-stage sharpening. |
| Aspect ratio (platform) | The shape (width:height) a destination displays or crops to — crop to it yourself so the platform doesn't. |
The four kinds of mobile app
| Category | Job | You use it… |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | Capture — exposure, focus, RAW | At the shutter (Chapter 22) |
| Developer (the darkroom) | Global + local tone/color, presets, export | ~90% of editing life — pick one good one |
| Specialist | One job done well (B&W, healing, panorama) | Only when the developer can't do that one thing |
| Publisher (the social app) | Re-compresses, resizes, crops your upload | Where export goes — it also edits, silently |
Your developer must pass three tests: ☐ accepts RAW ☐ true local adjustments (masks/brushes) ☐ saves your own presets. If it fails any, it's a filter app, not a darkroom.
The global develop order (do it in this sequence)
| # | Step | Touch control | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | White balance | Temp + Tint (or tap a grey) | Is the light's color honest / the mood I want? |
| 2 | Overall exposure | Exposure / Brightness | Whole image too dark or bright? (watch histogram) |
| 3 | Recover the ends | Highlights ↓, Shadows ↑ (then Whites/Blacks) | Pull back the blown sky; open the crushed shadows |
| 4 | Contrast / curve | Contrast slider / Tone Curve | Set the punch — black-to-white spread |
| 5 | Presence | Texture, Clarity, Dehaze | Local-contrast bite without over-sharpening |
| 6 | Color | Vibrance first, then per-color HSL | Accurate, then expressive; tame the loud hues |
| 7 | Then local + crop | masks/brushes + straighten | Direct the eye; fix the frame |
Two laws: ① Global before local. ② Tone before color.
Local-selection tools
| Tool | Selects by | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Radial / elliptical | An oval you place | A subject, a face, a glow |
| Linear / graduated | A fading band | Skies, horizons, top-to-bottom changes (the digital graduated ND) |
| Brush | Painting with a fingertip | Irregular shapes — a person, a roofline |
| Auto / AI mask | App detects sky/subject/skin | Fast scene-aware masks — verify the edges |
Two touchscreen habits: ☐ pinch-zoom in before you brush (precision) ☐ feather the mask (so the edit is invisible — no halo, no seam).
Export targets at a glance
| Destination | Aspect | Long edge | Format | Output sharpening |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram feed (portrait) | 4:5 | ~2,048 px | JPEG high | Screen |
| Square | 1:1 | ~2,048 px | JPEG | Screen |
| Stories / Reels / TikTok | 9:16 | ~1,920 px wide | JPEG | Screen |
| Portfolio website | 3:2 / as composed | ~2,560 px | JPEG high | Screen |
| Email / messaging | as composed | ~1,600 px | JPEG | Screen (light) |
| Print, small | 3:2 | full resolution | JPEG/TIFF max | Print (match paper) |
| Print, large | 3:2 / as composed | full resolution | TIFF if offered | Print (Matte > Glossy) |
| Archive | original | original | keep RAW + non-destructive master | none |
Rule: smaller and right-sized for screens; everything you have for paper. The exported JPEG is a delivery copy — never your master.
Aspect ratios and their homes
| Ratio | Home |
|---|---|
| 3:2 | Cameras; most prints (4×6) |
| 4:5 | Portrait feed post (tallest most feeds allow) |
| 1:1 | Square; grids, thumbnails |
| 9:16 | Vertical full-screen — stories, reels |
| 16:9 | Widescreen — video thumbs, web headers |
Top common mistakes → the fix
| Mistake | Why it's wrong | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Saturation slammed to +60, first | Garish, bands the sky, oranges skin; fights every later edit | Color comes last (step 6); use Vibrance, modestly |
| Editing out of order | Each step changes the next; you redo work | Follow the 7-step order; revisit only after |
| Treating a preset as a finish | Look matches but brightness lurches → looks worse | Apply preset for style, then hand-finish exposure per image |
| Unfeathered local mask | Visible halo / hard seam announces the edit | Feather; zoom in to clean the edge; reduce strength |
| Uploading a giant file to social | Platform re-compresses it harder → softer | Export ~2,048 px for screens |
| Wrong/no output sharpening | Soft prints or crunchy screen images | Set "Screen" vs "Print (Matte/Glossy)" on export |
| Letting the platform crop | It cuts your composition with no taste | Crop to the destination's aspect ratio yourself, first |
| Deleting the RAW after export | You can never re-edit or re-export bigger | Keep RAW + non-destructive master forever |
| Trusting auto/AI masks blindly | Grabs slivers of the wrong thing on tricky edges | Zoom in, verify, fix the boundary by hand |
"When to use what" — quick decisions
| Situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| Scene with big bright + big dark areas | Shoot RAW for the latitude |
| Whole image too dark/bright | Global exposure (step 2), watch histogram |
| One region needs brightening (sky, subject) | Local mask (graduated for sky, radial/brush for subject) |
| A set should look like it belongs together | Build a preset from the hero, apply, hand-finish exposure |
| Same image to feed and print | Two exports: ~2,048 px screen-sharpened and full-res print-sharpened |
| Color looks garish | You did color too early/too global — redo last, use Vibrance + HSL |
| Want to re-interpret an old shot | Re-open the RAW — non-destructive editing kept the negative |
The complete pipeline (the one-line version)
CAPTURE(RAW) → IMPORT → GLOBAL DEVELOP(in order) → LOCAL(direct the eye) → CROP(to target)
→ PRESET(save/apply) → EXPORT(per platform) → PUBLISH(it re-edits — you pre-empted it)
All on the phone. Keep the RAW + non-destructive master at the end.
Portfolio Checkpoint (recap)
☐ Take an existing keeper (ideally a RAW — the Ch.21 long exposure or Ch.22 phone frame are ideal).
☐ Develop it entirely on the phone: global develop in order → 2+ eye-directing local adjustments →
deliberate crop → correct export for one destination.
☐ Save as 25-mobile-edit; keep the original RAW + unedited file beside it.
☐ Note every adjustment — you'll re-edit this same RAW on a desktop in Chapter 26 and compare.
☐ Ask the curation question: does the edit reveal the latent photograph, or impose something unearned?
The strongest edits feel inevitable.
Light Log prompt (this chapter)
Note one photo you've seen whose edit you admire, and describe in words what the editor likely did — the color signature, the contrast, where the eye was directed locally. Reading edits backward trains you to make them (the way reading light backward trained your seeing in Chapter 1). Continues toward Chapter 37.