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  1. #1
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    This is just a short survey I have made up, just curious about the various techniques employed, filters and adjustment capabilities used, etc, just picking your brains for some good ideas. I'll be filling it out too. Thanks in advance!

    Which version of Photoshop do you use?

    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both?

    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why?

    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise?

    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results?

    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter?
    Last edited by Anbesol; 08-03-2008 at 11:54 AM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Which version of Photoshop do you use?
    CS2
    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both?
    I prefer USM, though ultra high contrast shots I prefer smart sharpen, as USM can often crunch line detail between high contrast areas and often abberation. They both create noise problems, but I've noticed that with my shots, Smart Sharpen creates a lot more noise than USM.
    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why?
    Levels, mostly because I am not very familiar with how curves work, I can't find anything that curves can do that levels cannot. I would like to know what benefit curves may have over levels.
    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise?
    The basic noise reduction plug-in. If ultra tack sharpness isn't key in the shot, I'll use a dust and scratches or median filter to preserve the colors.
    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results?
    I typically use AdobeRGB. AdobeRGB offers me the best printing results using the Canon Chromalife system, however sRGB always offers me more consistent results, it is significantly easier to calibrate an sRGB shot for the printer than AdobeRGB. AdobeRGB doesn't always translate the colorspace very well to my printer in spite of any driver, software, and/or ICC profile utilized. With AdobeRGB, the proofing process is usually much longer, but the end results I like better.
    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter?
    JPEG. Raw simply doesn't offer me enough benefit for my particular use to justify the extra processing time, and the extra system resource hogging time. I will sometimes shoot RAW, but 90% of the time I shoot JPEG. I prefer opening in CS2, but my new A700 MRW raws don't open through there. I am now using the provided Sony Software to process my Raws, then opening through photoshop once adjusted and translated to tiff.

  3. #3
    Sports photo junkie jorgemonkey's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol

    Which version of Photoshop do you use?
    CS2

    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both?
    I usually use the high pass filter at home, and use Smart Sharpen at work. I really haven't seen any problems with either. Using different layers, I can adjust the amount of sharpening anywhere in the pics

    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why?
    Depends if I'm using Lightroom or Photoshop. Photoshop I use Levels, LR I use curves. My reasoning is I'm faster at adjusting each in the program I use them in

    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise?
    I don't do much high ISO shooting, but I had a trial of Noise Ninja that I used

    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results?
    I shoot/edit in sRGB, and I print through it as well

    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter?
    Primarily RAW. I shoot jpegs depending who I am shooting for during certain sports where I know I'll be taking a couple thousand. I am possibly going to start shooting RAW for my bike races though. I open my RAW files in Lightroom, then either do all my editing in LR or I'll export to CS2 and edit there.
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  4. #4
    Learning more with every "click" mjs1973's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
    Which version of Photoshop do you use?
    CS3 Extended

    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both?
    Smart Sharpen. I also use the High Pass filter to sharpen my images. Make a duplicate layer of the layer I want to sharpen, go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Set it to around 6 or so, then change that layers blend mode to overlay. Then I can adjust the amount of sharpening using the Opacity slider, or I can add a layer mask and paint away what I don't want.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why?
    Curves yes. Levels, not very often. I always adjust these using Adjustment Layers so the effects of the adjustments can be fine tuned with masks. I do a small global curves adjustment in ACR, then fine tune specific areas using adjustment layers in PS.


    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise?
    Very rarely use any noise reduction filter.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results?
    sRGB because that is the colorspace that www.mpix.com uses when printing.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anbesol
    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter?
    Exclusively in RAW. I open and process my RAW files in Adobe Camera RAW.
    Mike

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    "I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view."
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  5. #5
    Senior Member Anbesol's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Thanks for responding. Is it because of the easier and more consistent workflow that sRGB offers that you chose it? Or do you just generally prefer the sRGB colorspace for other reasons?

  6. #6
    Analog Photographer, Digital World Axle's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Which version of Photoshop do you use?
    Photoshop CS3

    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both?
    I don't do much in the way of sharpening. I mostly use the Smart Sharpen when I feel it enhances the image.

    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why?
    Yes. It allows me greater control over the way I feel the image should look.

    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise?
    I use Kodak GEM Pro for noise reduction. If the situation requires it, I'll use the stock Photoshop filter to get rid of the chromatic noise, then GEM to smooth the texture.

    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results?
    I use the AdobeRGB colourspace. I have not seen any issues with prints from either space, I use Adobe mainly because that's what comes out of my camera.
    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter?
    I shoot in RAW mode a majority (at least 99%) of the time. I will then import the photos through Adobe Lightroom for a primary pass, then into Photoshop for finer control over the final product.
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  7. #7
    mod squad gahspidy's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    I use LightRoom and CS2.

    I used to use levels and curves in CS2, but since using lightRoom in my workflow I rarely need to now. The exposure adjustments in LR take care of all those needs. BTW, Curves offer more adjustment possibilities and specific tonal areas in an image whereas levels pretty much just works from the low and high end. Both are very effective.

    I think SmartSharpen is better than the other methods, but with any sharpening tool you have to watch carefully for halos around the edges of the image. Moderate is best.

    I would not shoot anything other than RAW, unless asked to for some reason or another by my client or boss.
    Especially now with the local adjustment tools in LightRoom2, RAW is the deal.

    The crop tool, image resize, and the dodge brush were probably the mainly used things in PS for me. LightRoom 2 has changed things now and I will most likely do most of my work in it.

    I use AdobeRGB colorspace to get the most colors from my images, although srgb will look a bit more pop when viewing on the web.
    I am now using Prophoto colorspace in LightRoom as it has an even wider color gamut than AdobeRGB.
    I have the NeatImage noise reduction filter and find it works quite well, but have not used it in a very long time. If I do use a noise reduction, I find that LR filter works well enough for what I need.
    please do not edit and repost my photos


    gary


  8. #8
    Moderator Didache's Avatar
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Which version of Photoshop do you use?

    Elements 5.0

    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both?

    USM - but very lightly as a rule

    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why?

    Levels is the very first thing I do in my workflow

    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise?

    Neatimage (if needed) - just the free one

    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results?

    Adobe RGB

    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter?

    RAW - converted in Elements

    Cheers
    Mike
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  9. #9
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    Re: A short questionnaire about your photoshop use, thanks!

    Which version of Photoshop do you use?
    At WORK CS3 EXTENDED on MAC at Home CS3 on PC and CS2 on MAC!

    Which sharpening filter do you prefer? (USM/Smart Sharpen) What are some problems you see associated with both? Usually USM and will create a lyer to later its strength if needed.

    Do you adjust levels or curves? What benefits you and helps your work-flow the most and why? CURVES. With curves you can pull the color of the images. Basically it allows alteration of RED, GREEN and BLUE. So if AWB is off this can be sorta fixed and whites made to read 230 as the should. Also can shift clcik points to later exact parts of the histogram.

    Which noise filter do you prefer? Do you use any third party plug-ins for noise? NONE

    Which colorspace do you use? (AdobeRGB/sRGB) Which one offers you the best printing results? sRGB just what my camera came set to?

    Do you shoot primarily Raw or JPEG? If Raw, do you open through photoshop/lightroom or another raw converter? 90% JPEG RAW only when $$$ is guaranteed!

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