Typical workflow help to get me started

[Dan1502]

Hi

I'm reading up on PP techniques and trying to put them into practice. My main points of reference have been tutorial on here, the articles on this site http://ronbigelow.com/articles/articles.htm, luminous landscape etc.

I have ordered the Scott Kelby book on CS5 but this is prerelease and I won't get it until early August.

I've learned a lot from the Ron Bigelow articles but am left with some fundamental questions that I think I should get answered before I open up any more photos for editing otherwise I will probably go insane.

I mostly take landscapes, buildings and general travel photography at present.

Ron's artciles suggest that keeping image degradation to the minimum is key. He then says as much processing as possible should be done in Camera Raw as this results in none. He then talks about smart objects.

What I wish to know is what I should be doing in the Camera Raw of CS5 before opening the image in PS, expecially as there are far more options than in the earlier versions referred to in most articles. The order of doing things and perhaps links to good tutorials on this would also be helpful.

Similarly, the order of tasks once opened in PS would be helpful too.

I realise there are several ways to 'skin a cat' but a reasonable order from a professional and based on CS5 would be greatly appreciated.

I also realise there are workflows for quick editing and for printing high quality prints. I would prefer the latter as I can probably learn most and get best results from this.

I hope this isn't too big a question. If so, please forgive me as I'm just someone pretty new to this who is excited about photography but at the same time getting frustrated by the complexity of post processing. Just to clarify, I'm not really asking for an explanation of techniques, just the best (or one or two of the best) orders to perform them and in which areas of CS5.

Examples of the many aspects confusing me include; sharpening can be performed in camera raw now but should I be doing it here or in PS? If in PS, what should I set the camera raw sharpening settings to before opening in PS? A tone curve can be applied in camera raw but I can't see how to accurately set black and white points as can be done in PS - where should I be applying curves, in camera raw or PS and if in camera raw, how should I go about it? etc etc etc!!!

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[cuthbert]

for me, i use the lightroom / photoshop combo, not camera raw - it does the same thing but is easier when you've got loads of images to do.

i can't really be too specific because every image is different and some need more processing than others, but as a general rule:

1) i get the colour balance, and general feel of the image correct in lightroom first. i don't do any sharpening in lightroom. i do that in PS last.

2) in lightroom you can set the tone curve, but not as accurately as in PS. i get it about where I want it, but do final tweaks in PS if needed. i set the colour temperature and camera profile first in Lightroom and work from there.

3) on some images, it is necessary to use mask when applying a curves adjustment, so again, depending on whether this is needed will depend on the sort of adjustments i'll do in lightroom.

4) I do final sharpen in PS. again, what i do depends on whether the image is destined for print or web.

 

[Dan1502]

Thanks Mark.

 

[tiler65]

The lightroom raw module is the same raw engine as ACR (Adobe camera raw) so you should be able to do everything in CS5.