How to improve seeing the editing details?

[Manfred M]

Manfred , I will give this workflow a try. I’ve read some workflows that are similar to yours. I often use this time to play with sliders and try to see tones better.

You will find that over time that you develop an order, even inside these broad guidelines, that give you a workflow that you feel comfortable with because it lets you see the image in a way that shows you the way forward. Some people suggest that one follows the order that the software has laid out while others do things differently.

In Lightroom / Adobe Camera Raw, I rarely use anything other than the shadows and highlights sliders. I sometime use clarity and dehaze. I never use saturation and almost never use vibrance. I rarely use either the exposure or contrast sliders.

Most of my work is done in Photoshop.

[DanK]

My editing workflow is similar to Manfred's in that I start with global adjustments and then turn to smaller areas. However, I don't as systematically distinguish between larger areas and smaller ones when I do local adjustments. Probably should.

Both Manfred and I have the same core process: start with parametric editing (ACR in his case, Lightroom in mine--the same engine, but a different interface) and then move to Photoshop for pixel-based editing. Another aspect of workflow design is arises if you take a detour from this basic workflow to access additional editors, such as the Nik plugins or a stacking program. In the case of stacking, I adjust only white balance and sometimes exposure before exporting to my stacking program (Zerene), which means that I then have TIFF files that have my few initial edits baked in. That's one reason I do so few. (Some people do a bit of sharpening also before stacking to give the software clearer edges for alignment.) In the case of Nik filters, I have to admit that I have no consistent process. I still do as much as I can in a parametric editor, but after that, my going to Nik usually near the end, but it is somewhat ad hoc. Probably shouldn't be.

Within Lightroom, my workflow largely follows the order of the develop panel (top to bottom), but the order of your commands in LR or ACR has absolutely no effect on the final product, so I feel free to move up and down as needed.

[James G]

Erik, I use Photoshop CC. I have been using it since version 2, many years ago, and much as other respondents have said already, my workflow has developed and changed in many ways as I became more comfortable with the package, but more significantly also as my 'style/eye' developed (for want of a better expression!)

I've actually had to stop and think through what I actually do these days, but for what it is worth .....

Raw processing ...I routinely do the following

1) Camera Calibration (I use Camera Faithful)
2) Lens Correction, Correct Cjhromatic Aberration (can be a prob )
3) Enable Lens correction (choose from drop downs for make and model
4) Going to Basic tab I then: -

5) Increase or decrease exposure
6) Adjust clarity
7) Then set blacks. (try increasing blacks and then back off using the shadows slider to avoid blowing them, ( if you blow the blacks, moving the shadows slider to the right will pull them back)

I tend to use sliders on basic adjustments in pairs.

Set the Black/ white alerts for ‘blown’ highlights and lowlights ...(click/toggle the two little boxes at each side of RGB histogram at the top.

My 'pairings' are :-
Exposure & highlight
Blacks & shadows
Highlights and Whites
Clarity and Exposure or Clarity and Black

For some reason which I can’t really justify other than it’s a preference I’m comfortable with I tend to adjust Clarity and Exposure first. I look to get the brightness I want for the image. I then move on to Blacks and Shadows in order to adjust the overall light/dark balance of the image

I then tend to work on Highlights and Whites, with a view to balancing the contrast to a level that seems right.
I find that particularly as I make changes to Highlight/White I often go back to Exposure or Blacks and ‘fine tune’.

I’ve also noticed that I rarely adjust the contrast if I’ve used the Exposure/Clarity approach.

With white balance, I usually do this immediately after basic exposure adjustment.

My other usual adjustments using raw are applying basic sharpening and noise removal.

I usually do not apply a crop in Raw unless I've bee shooting macro. I tend to leave cropping to the end of my CC process.


These days, I find that I use CC itself to carry out adjustments to specific areas of the image, performing local adjustments that usually involve masking, eg this can be lightening or darkening specific areas of the image (which could be done in RAW using local ajustments, but which I find does not give me the 'fine' control I want).

Generally though, I use CC to finalise the look of the image applying sharpening etc which is suitable for the way it is to be presented, ie print, screen, web.

Hope this helps you....

[ErikB13]

Thanks James, your advice has been helpful, along with everyone else. I'm excited about all the feedback. This has been the most engaging and helpful forums I've been on.