Head scratch time!!!

[archangel]

Just back from meeting a few other togs for a bit of craic and this question was threw into the ring."what steps do you take in photoshop to make your shots look better"...my argument was that it was photo relevent to each individual shot but some of the guys use the same steps for every shot..eg auto contrast,saturate,etc and then sharpen before saving and printing etc......so was wondering what would the general consensus be for post processing the average photo?????answers on a postcard...

 

[sbowler579]

Well I shoot RAW so workflow as follows, Adjust in RAW editor, maybe adjust blacks, lower saturation. I lower saturation because I alwalys do a curves adjustment in CS5, now this always increases the saturation, hence the earlier steps. After the initial steps in RAW editing, I then do curves/ dodge/burn/ clone out any specs of dust ect, or if it is a portrait shot any spots or blemishes, then do a LAB sharpen which I have setup as an actin in CS5. Finally add simple boarder. Also for portraiture I use the Topaz Adjust plugin, using the portraiture smooth option.

 

[misssassylassy]

A sample of my work flow would be
Open in ACR sort out WB
Exposure
camera profile change to camera neutral
play with curves
reduce noise

Open in PS i have CS5
make a layer and transform that layer and recompose the shot to the best composition (i prefer this than cropping)
In curves set my black and white point
Levels set my black and white points
Curves make sure the numbers are right in skin tones changing the CMYK values till they read correct
curves midtone boost to lighten skin
run a colour pop reduce to 20% just to bring colour into the skin
color pop for rest of photo masking back the skin
If needed use MCP's eye DR on eyes
clone any imperfections in the skin
do an inverted multiply layer and using soft white brush at a low opacity go around the edge to pop and darken it

Each pic is different but that is the basis of what i do!

 

[Chappers]

I work in Lightroom and treat every image separately. It's not unusual to do nothing to an image. However the most common adjustments I make are.

Exposure tweak
Set to custom camera profile.
White Balance
Darks adjust ( for punch)
Maybe a quick use of the gradation tool.

However these are not to all images and some images may only get one or two. Some (a few ) as I said earlier get none.

 

[AndyB]

I would aggree with you Michael - I would never ever apply the same set of processing to a batch of pictures not matter how similar they are. Every picture needs it's own processing.