Is there a proper workflow?

[robb01]

Ive always wondered if I'm making adjustments to my photos correctly. I basically just open up my CS2, then first off adjust exposure/crop the photo. Then I'll usually do an unsharpen filter, then play around w/ highlights/shadows and then adjust brightness/saturation.

Is there anything wrong with this method? Or is there a better way of editing?

 

[JoshC.]

Sounds right to me. I go down the list in order in Lightroom. I'm curious as to what others do though.

 

[Big Mike]

Sharpening is usually something done near the end of the workflow. Primarily because the amount of sharpening you use, should be determined by your intended output. For example, you might want to sharpen more when creating files for printing, than when just uploading for web viewing. Also, you may not want to sharpen until after you have resized for web viewing...or maybe you'll want to do it both before and after a resizing.

HERE is a decent article on the subject of workflow (using Photoshop, circa 2002)

 

[bigtwinky]

Sharpening at the end, not at the start.

In terms of overall workflow, depends on what you are shooting. Going one image at a time for 2,000 wedding shots isn't the most productive.
If you are doing more fine art stuff and working with only one image, then that can work.

I believe I read that Lightroom is actually designed with a "proper" workflow in place. And you will notice that the sharpening is near the end of the list.
Cloning, cleaning of the image, cropping, WB --> exposure, contrast, black and white conversion --> saturation, clarity --> tones and specific colour adjustment --> noise reduction, sharpening

 

[n781lc]

Agree, how many at a time and what you are trying to accomplish makes all the difference.
The reason so many pros and active amateurs use Lightroom is the ease of importing, selecting, editing and setting up for use now or later .. Develop, Print, Slideshow or Web..

Most important is that you get ALL your photos in ONE File with the structure of the sub-folders whatever works best for you. by dates id popular, by events, by shoots. lots of ways. Can be pretty much wherever you want. I use iMacHD>user>Pictures>EBLPhotos. After setting that up on the hard Drive I import from the card using LR to hat ever folder I select or a new one. Once in LR catalog I again sort or delete.

The first thing I do is crop and straighten, then check white balance, look at histogram for blow outs and then basic editing, tone curve, and Details or vignetting. The options are numerous and can be very close to Photoshop although that, or Elements, is where the last "polish" is applied.

You can also use Photoshop Elements with the organizer to accomplish a lot of that .. at a much more reasonable price. With the Organizer and Adobe Camera Raw a lot is accomplished prior to the fine tune in the Editor.. PSE 9 has been on sale recently. Check adobe.com/products

Suggest a book on "Digital Photography" of which there are many and sort of follow through the author's suggestions.

Google any question you think of and be surprised at the result.

Enjoy ... that's what it is all about,

Ed

 

[SlickSalmon]

Just one suggestion to add to the above -- do all your brightness/contrast work before any hue/saturation adjustments. Often what looks like a saturation problem is really a contrast problem in disguise.

 

[ghache]

Here is a small interesting article about this subject here.

Why Lightroom Workflow Doesn't Matter - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Tips | Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips


Its just saying your workflow in photoshop doesnt affect the picture the same why it does in lightroom.

In photoshop, any change you do is applying on the top of each other this is why so many people like to do the sharpening at the end. Thats because it the way it should be done to get the best result. This is why having a good workflow is essential.

in lighroom, changing from sharpnening to exposure to blacks and going back to do cross processing and going back to temperature doesnt mean anything.

 

[KmH]

The sliders and panels in ACR /Lightroom are arranged in the order they should be used and are a good guide for developing a workflow.

I disagree in part with the 'do any sharpening last' school of thought.

I do sharpening at least twice and very often I sharpen 3 times:

• capture sharpening in my Raw converter
• local sharpening in Photoshop
• output sharpening based on how the photo will be displayed - electronic display, or as one of several kinds of print (chromogenic, inkjet (giclée), offset press).

 

[Nubbs]

Thanx to the OP for starting this thread. It has great info in it. Up to this point I never really followed any type of work flow at all in LR. I would dump everything from my card into a picture folder on my desk top. I would than sort out the bad ones and than import the pic that were left into LR. On import I would contrast and sharpen everything. I would than work on the pics I wanted to followed by exporting the good ones to another folder on my desktop for just worked LR pics with my water mark.

Looks like I am going to be doing some things a little different from now on.