# What is your basic Photoshop "workflow"?



## rip18 (Sep 23, 2007)

What is the order of your basic Photoshop workflow once you decide to work up an image?

I zoom way in & use the spot healing brush tool to clean up dust spots (for some cases, I use the clone stamp tool).

Then I adjust levels (white, black, & then mid).

Then I bump saturation a tad if needed.

Then I do any cloning to get rid of stray branches, leaves, etc.

Then I crop to "final" shot.

Then I sharpen & save my TIF master file (and a Photoshop version if I have many layers).

Then I resize to web size.

Then I use unsharp mask to sharpen (assuming I haven't done a two-step resizing version to sharpen).

Then I save a web jpeg.

Then I add my copyright and save as a copyrighted web jpeg.

Anybody else have a standard workflow to share (so I can learn something & change mine????).


----------



## ronfritz (Sep 23, 2007)

1) Open and play with the adjustments in Raw just to see what they do.
	Make sure I’m editing in 16-bit mode
	Usually end up settling on small adjustments to exposure, saturation, clarity, sharpness

2) Crop

3) Clone out unwanted elements

4) Color cast correction
There seem to be many articles written about this.  I’ve been aware of issues with color cast for 35 years since reading the first book my uncle gave me.  For those of you who wonder what this is, examples include the ‘red’ hue you see in a picture taken indoors without flash or the blue hue you see in outdoor pictures.  Changing white balance on your camera or (if outdoors) using an 81A, B or C filter on your lens corrects most of it but you can do better afterwards. Call me a procrastinator but only this week did I finally get serious about figuring out how to correct it with anything other than a filter or the white balance setting.  Presently what I’ve learned from Yoda and read on the internet suggest that one quick way to accomplish this is by creating a copy layer, selecting blur>average, and then inverting (control-i), then setting the blending mode to lighten (but other blending modes seem to work ok depending on the picture).  I’ve seen articles written that involve more elaborate selection and correction using channels in alternate color spaces and am looking for one that is well written and well illustrated.

5) Adjust saturation, contrast as necessary

6) Sharpen
No pun intended but I’m clearly in the experimental stage here.  Currently USM is set to 85/.8/4 and I generally run a single pass using it on all pictures.  Sometimes I drop the settings and run more USM passes.  Not sure about optimal procedure here.  I read the multiple passes thing somewhere and have been playing with it from time to time in an effort to judge its value.  Sometimes I also run a sharpening sequence called Lab Color sharpening that sharpens only a selected channel.  And sometimes I try Smart sharpen.

7) Reduce Noise
	This is another area where I’m still experimenting.  Currently the tool is set to 10/40/2/1.

8) Resize and run USM one time same settings as the first time.

9) Save
	Amazingly, there is experimentation going on here as well.  You wouldn’t think something as simple as saving would make a difference but it makes a big difference.  Photoshop has a Save for Web option that seems to do real well for me….at least to my eye.  Problem is, I can’t get it to save the EXIF info.  DRB experimented with various jpg save options a while back.  Unless I am having an early moment of CRS I think he recommended converting to sRGB IE61966-2.1.  Sounds worse than it is.  The option is in Edit>Convert to Profile.  I’m not sure if that option exists in PSE.  I may be missing a step, but viewed in File Manager I can’t see a difference, however when viewed within a browser, the file created in Save for Web looks sharper and more saturated.

The only reason I ever spend more than a minute for each photograph is because I am still experimenting.  Assuming I did no experimenting or cloning all the above would take a minute or less.  Maybe when I learn a few more tricks, I'll spend a few more minutes per photo but still don't think the actual 'work' will take much time.

Hopefully this thread will yield a good basic list of steps and some suggestions on tactics.  Rather than rewriting what has already been written, perhaps it would be good to begin creating a shared list of links to pages that provide those instructions.

Here's a page I bumped into last night that seems to have some decent tips on a basic workflow.

http://tips.romanzolin.com/articles/article010.php

Or maybe convert a subject photo to DNG so that it is small enough to share via email and see what everyone comes up with.


----------



## DRB1313 (Sep 23, 2007)

Open in ACR, adjust (white balance and exposure only) if needed.

Next, Open the 16bit image in photoshop.

Step1.  Apply an 85,.75,4 USM to all images.

Step2. Aplly noise reduction to any image iso400 or higher.

Step3. Crop. I crop now so that any further adjusments are only applied to what I am using.
This keeps me from spending time cloning items that will not be in the image anyway and it helps other tools do their job correctly.

Step4. Clean-up time. 

Step5. Almost all images get Hue/Saturation boost of 5.

Step6. Adjust levels if needed.

Step7. Save as Tiff for later use. ie Printing.

Step8. Hit F13,  This is an action I have set up that automatically builds my frame. (Major Time Saver)

Step9. Resize image.

Step10. Apply USM of 85,1,4 or 85,.75,4 or 85,.50.4 depending on the image. 

Step11. Image>Mode change to 8bit.

Step12. Edit>Convert to srgb. 

Step13. File> Save as> jpeg. Adjust quality setting to under 488kb.


----------



## DRB1313 (Sep 23, 2007)

Hey Ron, My very 1st post on this site was a tutorial of the technique I was telling you about for color correcting a jpeg.  It got a total of 3 responses and 1 of them was mine.
The photo section has come a long way since then, so for anyone shooting j-peg or that has some they would like to work on, Here's the link.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=93448


----------



## ronfritz (Sep 23, 2007)

DRB1313 said:


> Hey Ron, My very 1st post on this site was a tutorial of the technique I was telling you about for color correcting a jpeg.  It got a total of 3 responses and 1 of them was mine.
> The photo section has come a long way since then, so for anyone shooting j-peg or that has some they would like to work on, Here's the link.
> 
> http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=93448



Yep, that's the ticket...you are one helpful dude.

I thought I'd forgotten something because I thought I remembered seeing a mask on that inverted layer...I guess I was remembering some other procedure.


----------



## jason308 (Sep 23, 2007)

Well, mine usually doesn't "flow".....  But it depends on the image....Like Ron said, I usually play with the sliders when I open it up the raw files just to see what they will do.....I used to have to clone stamp or healing brush a good bit of my shots (dust spots), but since I picked up some cleaning supplies and got some hands on lessons I don't have to do that as much anymore.....Then I clone stamp out anything that needs it, crop it, run the unsharp mask and save it as a jpeg and size it according to what i am doing with it.....I am lucky I can do that much in Photoshop, that is a relatively unexplored frontier for me......But y'all make it look easy!!!!  I swear i saw DRB's name on the Photoshop box somewhere though!!!!!


----------



## rip18 (Sep 23, 2007)

gatrapper -

Photoshop is fairly expensive, but Photoshop Elements does 99% of what most folks need - it runs $80 to $100 at WalMart, BestBuy, Office Depot, or most any place that sells software.


----------



## Hoss (Sep 23, 2007)

I'm with Jason on this, what flow.
Having said that, I normally make adjustments to the raw photo.  I then open it in photo shop, sharpen using USM.  Fom there it's crop it, frame it, sign it, and post it.  Sometimes I do play with a few other settings, but usually don't have the time to get do much more.  One day, I will have a time to figure out photoshop, cause I know I'm not getting all I could out of it.

Hoss


----------



## FERAL ONE (Sep 24, 2007)

i know i need to get deeper in post processing, but i am usually too lazy to!!! i open in raw , adjust temperature ,exposure, and saturation if needed. then open in edit and clone / crop if needed. sharpen last. save for web and share with yall!!!!


----------



## leo (Oct 4, 2007)

*Mine varies with each pic*

depending on what I think it needs...

As I usually shoot RAW, thats where I start... 1'st the exposure then the white balance, occasionally a shadow adj if needed.  
Next any cropping/cloning, then on through any levels, color, sharpening that I feel is needed. 

  Occasionally I will run the opened raw  through "quick fix" .. I don't actually do any adjustments there but I do a few previews to get an idea of what the various adjustments will produce


One thing is for sure ... if I run a RAW pic through more than once I will not end up with the exact pic that I got before


----------

