Elements 8 Workflow

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nickrp73

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Name
Nick
Edit My Images
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I've got PSE 8 on my Laptop/Mac, and I'm beginning to get my head around it. The only problem I've got is the order to do things, every time I process an image it seems like I do it differently each time, end up getting confused, and indifferent results with my photos. Can anyone suggest a workflow that I can use so I can spend less time processing and more time shooting.
 
I think Nick had been reading my mind when he wrote the above. Can anyone suggest a basic workflow to run through when processing from RAW?
 
Here's how I do it:

1 Duplicate the background layer, turn off visibility of the background layer.
2 With the new layer, straighten if necessary and crop if wanted.
3 Do initial sharpening if the photo is soft
4 Use one or more adjustment layers to get the lighting and tonality the way I want.
5 Do any healing/cloning on a new layer.
6 Apply any filters and, if needed or wanted, add more adjustment layers.
7 Do a 'stamp visible' to create a merged top layer.
8 Do final sharpening.
9 Save the .psd and a JPEG for upload.

This is a basic photo processing workflow. Obviously it will change if I want to do composites, background changes, etc. Also I haven't bothered to mention all the selecting and mask work involved. It's also very late in the day (actually, very early the next day) and I may have missed something or other.
 
garryknight said:
4 Use one or more adjustment layers to get the lighting and tonality the way I want.
5 Do any healing/cloning on a new layer.
6 Apply any filters and, if needed or wanted, add more adjustment layers.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Garry.

Can I ask why you use a new layer for each of the above as opposed to making any changes on a single, copied layer?

Think I'm going to have to just mess about with the filters etc to see what they are as I've no idea lol
 
Ian W said:
Can I ask why you use a new layer for each of the above as opposed to making any changes on a single, copied layer?
Click to expand...
Much easier to make changes and see the effect of individual items on separate layers. For example, if you put a border on the picture, do some more editing and then decide you don't like the border, you can just remove it if it is on a different layer. If it's all on one, you have to unpick what you have done since you put it on there.

Another advantage is you can reorder layers if you need to.
 
Ian W said:
Can I ask why you use a new layer for each of the above as opposed to making any changes on a single, copied layer?
Click to expand...

arad85 said:
Much easier to make changes and see the effect of individual items on separate layers.
Click to expand...

It's also much easier to go back at a later date if you want to change things because you don't like the original look that you got. Also, if you want to produce several versions with different processing, you can produce the first version, turn off the visibility of some layers, produce the second version, then do a 'stamp visible' on each version and save each as a jpeg. Stamp Visible (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E) produces a new layer merging all visible layers below it.

There's also the matter of the size of the resulting .psd file. I've seen tutorial videos where someone duplicates the main layer almost every time they want to make a change which increases the .psd file size by the size of an extra layer, which could be something like 2-15 MB per layer depending on the sensor size of the camera. If you use adjustment layers your original layers are preserved. And if you want to do tonal changes such as dodge and burn you can do them on a separate layer with a layer mask, which is a lot smaller in byte size than a new image layer. Again, to do local adjustments such as sharpening eyes, you can select one or more small areas and press Ctrl+J to lift just those areas onto a new layer to work on them. A few MB might not matter if you've got multiple 1TB or bigger drives, but if you've got tens (or hundreds) of thousands of photos to work on it adds up very quickly.
 
I like Garry's order. For his number 4 in Elements I usually do an Adjust color curves to get the shallow "s" shape and also do a levels adjustment layer on every photo I process. These 2 steps alone normally make the image 'pop' in that glossy sort of looking way. Dodging and burning would also come in this category I guess.
 
I should have said that the list above is the way I would process anything for which I wanted to use Elements rather than just a quick tweak in Lightroom, and that list is for the regular processing of photos. For some jobs I can substitute at least step 6 and maybe other s with a quick trip into Topaz Adjust. Sometimes I sharpen with Adjust and don't bother doing a stamp-visible. And sometimes I substitute steps 7 and 8 with a simple 'hi-pass filter' layer set to Soft Light to do the sharpening.
 
1-If just using Elements I would adjust the raw image in ACR including straightning and cropping then open it up in the editor as 16 bit image.

To the main image (if you duplicate the layer you lose the ability to edit in 16 bit mode)

2-- Do any global adjustments to the lighting and colour (which are the most destructive to the image integrity)

All these can be done in 16 bit mode which is less destructive.

3- Change to 8 bit mode so localised adjustments can be made using adjustment layers and normal layers.

4- The last operation should be sharpening.
 
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N00b question: How do you 'tell' ACR you want to go into elements in 16 bit mode?

Ta.
 
I didn't think 16bit mode was available in elements?
 
DorsetDude said:
N00b question: How do you 'tell' ACR you want to go into elements in 16 bit mode?

Ta.
Click to expand...

Where it says depth 8bit change it to 16 bit using the drop down menu (little arrow).:)

140175055.jpg
 
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