what come first ?

[Martin Brazil]

A basic question I know, but when doing basic pp adjustments in what order, if any, should they be carried out.
Normally, using PS, I sharpen the picture, adjust the colour balance and contrast, resize it to around 800 x whatever and save it as a smaller size.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[OldClicker]

I am really just discovering PP workflow (using PS Elements v6) and would be very interested in what others think of this:

Import those I might want from the card (as RAW) to Elements Organizer. Give them Tags for organizing and delete blurred, etc.

Chose the photo to work on and send to Edit.

It goes through Camera Raw (Adobe rendering software) where I adjust the Exposure, Temperature, Contrast, Saturation and maybe a little Fill Light or Recovery.

On to Edit where I:

Copy Background to make a Cloning/fixing layer (maybe more than one if I need to work on the subject and the background).

Copy Clone to Adjustment layer for any color type work.

Copy Adjustment to High Pass where, at this time, I just delete everything that I do NOT want sharpened. (If it is important and/or I have a lot of work in it, I will save here as a pre-crop PSD.)

Crop to the desired composition.

Make a Levels layer and adjust the three colors.

Save as PSD.

Adjust the size for the desired output (i.e. 800x or x800 if posting on PR).

Sharpen using the High Pass filter and Soft Light.

Flatten the layers.

Save as jpg or tiff depending upon what I am going to do with it.

TF

[GB1]

Martin,

These are just the basic clean up steps, so are easy. Regarding sharpening, do this last. If you apply various post processing effects or filters then some of them done on top of sharpening can cause strange-looking results.

Also, resizing an image - even to a smaller size - will often soften it, so you need to sharpen last.

[Medley]

1)Resize for print
2) Exposure adjustments
3) Tonal/ Contrast adjustments
4) Color conversion/management
5) Dust/ Spot removal
6) Repair/Rebuild/Clone
7) Sharpen for output.

- Joe U.

[Martin Brazil]

Basic stuff I know GB1, but I am quite new to pp and don't have the time just now to explore it further so its just these steps that I'm worried about at the moment. Thanks for the sharpening tip and thanks a lot for your 7 steps Joe, exactly what I needed to know.
When I have a little more time on my hands I'll take a look at your clean up procedure OldClicker and see if I can learn something.
Thanks again guys.

[mn shutterbug]

Don't forget that after you sharpen it, you may have to do some noise reduction, which would then be the last step.

[GB1]

Don't forget that after you sharpen it, you may have to do some noise reduction, which would then be the last step.

Regarding noise, NeatImage noise reducer is free if you want to try it, up to 1024 pixels wide images. Larger than that and you have to purchase the software. It integrates in with Photoshop and Corel PhotoPaint.

[readingr]

In RAW conversion I will not normally saturate in the RAW editor I leave this until it gets into photoshop. I do play with the revcovery and balcks sliders in RAW.

I tend to follow Medley's routine except for the print resize which I do just before sharpening.

I will not save the file sharpened, I save the file unsharpened. I will then sort out the resizing of the image and sharpening just before printing becuse I may print the same image at various sizes.

Roger R.

[danic]

If you are confident in your PP skills, I'd strongly suggest using Lightroom! There has never been an easier tool designed for it. You can use presets to lighten your workload and increase your work flow. Sooooo much easier. :-)

[Rocket_Scientist]

For my two cents...which may only be worth a haypenny... I certainly concur that sharpening should be (almost) the last thing. While it is not good to resize, you can crop after sharpening. I do not have RAW capability with my P&S, so I have to start with jpg, and the first thing I usually do is straighten. (Yes, I admit, I usually need to...) However, I prefer to do all color and lighting correction with as much of the original photo as possible, and after that, I will crop and/or resize. I may be wrong, but I have this innate belief that correction tools benefit from more data availability. But then, what do I know...

[GlenHumphries]

Usually:
- export NEF raw to DNG
- open DNG in photoshop (Adobe Raw Editor)
- crop (and straighten if necessary)
- fix brightness, contrast, exposure etc.
- fiddle with saturation, brightness (and sometimes hue) of individual colours
- sharpen (not often)
- correct white balance
- send to PS main
- save to jpg

[drg]

I do the physical manipulations first.
This includes:
-Straightening
-Lens corrections (aberration adjustments)
-Warping or removing keystoning (a leaning in/out toward the viewer image such as a building sloping away)
-Cropping or other specific compositional changes including aspect ratio change
-resizing, either up or down sampling. I resize before I do any of the other work that follows so as to be able to correct the problems it induces later in the workflow. It also means that I am adjusting the color, White balance, Dynamic Range, etc of the final photo.

The physical changes are order dependent upon the editor or tool I am using. Up or downsampling will make some difference as to whether I crop or resize first. The resizing I will often do in two or more stages and do minor sharpening, often called Pre-sharpening to get the image I plan two work with for the final image. Pre-sharpening is to overcome the inherent softness from a RAW file or scanner(flat bed or scan back) that always needs to be taken in to account.

The Dynamic Range I usually do next followed by White Balance unless I am shooting a completely calibrated image (with targets in the image or have preset the camera with Custom WB and have an actual measure Color Temp), then it is reversed.

Now come the editing magic for such things as blemish removal, or softening or selective adjustments to faces, or edges, red-eye removal, background adjustments and the like.

Other effects or 'treatements' follow on top of a 'cleaned up' photo.

Now the Noise Reduction. There are many, many ways to get various NR effects from plug-ins to using the Unsharp Mask 'backwards' to soften the image in certain ranges. General blurs and brush techniques can readily clean up an individual image better than most overall tools. Cameras that map bad pixels and generate NR files via a black exposure may have by this stage already 'fixed' traditional problems. Lucky us!!

Since we are already at the final size, if there are not more touch-ups required, it is time to sharpen for the appropriate output, be it print, web, or now even HD presentation which requires a bit different application as the contrast ratios are scaled differently.

Then after the sharpening I add any added features from frames, to soft proofing adjustment (you don't want to save those as a final or the print will show it unfavorably), to watermarks (including the invisible type), or insets.

Then save a copy of everything! If you are using the full features of the Adobe Photoshop line, save a *.pdf file to have comple 'history' of your work and also be sure to have a working copy of your original RAW file. The Raw should not be damaged, but it might get erased or renamed accidentally and should be archived separately prior to starting.