wrote:
What is your digital photography workflow from the moment you download your images from your media card to the moment you are printing? Just curious and trying to find some ideas. Thank you in advance.
If I have a lot of pictures, I first convert to DNG.
Open the picture with ACR. The default setting is to make NO changes in ACR. I do bring it in 16 bit ProPhotoRGB.
Hit action to convert to LAB and then 8 bit. (I’ve never SEEN any difference in 8 bit and things run faster and smaller in 8 bit.)
Hit action to run Noise Ninja on the Lightness channel. I also do it separately on the "a" and "b" channels. Then it selects both the "a" and
"b" channels and runs surface blur on them.
Hit action to run Focus Magic. This runs twice to sharpen the picture. I know most people do it at the end, but I got tired of having to fix sharpened things after editing. So, I sharpen right after Noise Ninja and fix everything just once. Sharpening at this stage also makes it easier to see those flaws and blemishes that need to be edited out.
Manually run the filter Curvemeister to correct exposure and color. This is why I don’t fix anything in ACR; Curvemeister is much better and faster than doing it in ACR.
Then I zoom in to 200% and start to use a variety of tools to edit the details. These can vary a lot. I almost always use Healing Brush. I often use Rubber Stamp, Sponge, and Smudge. I also usually use Quick Mask and Brush.
Hit action to convert it to 8 bit RGB mode.
Then I save everything in JPEG2000 Lossless format. Hey, it’s the smallest lossless format – why not.
I let it sit for a day or two or a week, then do another edit to make sure everything is still the way I want it. I often do some fine tuning at this stage.
Then save it in the other formats the customer requires and/or print it.
Everything is subject to change depending on the picture, subject, or customer needs.
Thanks,
Clyde