I will try to answer the questions above by elaborating more on the individual steps:

If I am shooting in a situation where I just don't have the time to determine the right manual setting then I will use aperture priority. That way the camera will determine the shutter speed for me and I can take pictures faster, at the expense of more editing later to fine tune the brightness.

> 1) I use a gray card to set the white balance of the camera.
Putting the camera in "one touch" white balance mode and setting the metering to "spot" I then point the camera at the middle of the gray card while the gray card is in the lighting the scene shares. Press the button just below the white balance mode button and the camera will then calculate the white balance based on the gray cards color. It is very accurate and makes for better looking pictures right out of the can.

> 2) I also use the gray card to determine exposure by spot metering
> off of it while it is illuminated by the same light as the subject.
This can be a little tricky depending on the lighting but basically you angle the card so that it is reflecting as much light as possible into the lens of the camera. Adjust the shutter speed until you get a meter reading of "0EV". This usually provides the best exposure.

> 3) I tend to use F4 as my default aperture to get the best
> resolution sharpness. I will use F2 if I am in low light
> situations and must hand hold the camera and F8 when there is too
> much light and I don't have a neutral density filter on hand. The
> apertures can be anywhere in between depending on the scene and
> situation.
This step depends largely on what you want your photo to look like, and how much light you have to play with. But most people who use manual tend to have their favorite aperture, F4 is mine for the sharpness it provides.

> 4) I try to use a tripod at every opportunity and only hand hold
> the camera when I can't use a tripod.
I find that the tripod actually helps me slow down and plan out the shot better. When I get going too fast I miss things and hate myself in the morning ;-) One of the best things we can do as photographers is slow down. I have hiked around with the tripod and while I can get tired it is worth it for the benefits it bring to me. I was taking some photos of a baby the other day in low light without a flash. I almost gave up and went flash, but the act of slowing down and waiting gave me a handful of shots that I really like and has the lighting I wanted too.

> 5) I bracket many of my photos just in case I have metered the
> scene poorly. Usually +1EV and -1EV
The bracketing of the shots allows me to get versions of the scene with emphasis on shadow detail and also highlight details. Being able to mix those together later can have a big impact on the photo. Sometimes you just get the metering all wrong as well and that extra EV can make the difference in getting a usable photo as opposed to a throw away photo. Here is a description of the EV and it's usage: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=2494597

> 6) Once I have the best exposure I can get from the camera I open
> the image up in Photoshop Elements. I check the histogram and fine
> tune the color and brightness using levels and or stacking the
> bracketed images I have to increase the dynamic range of the image.
There are two ways I check the histogram. One way is to look at the actual histogram and the other is to look at the histogram in levels. The levels histogram is the one I use the most. First I look at the RGB histogram to see how well it is populated. Then I switch to the red, green, and blue channels. I will move the black and white sliders in until it touches the beginning and end of the data respectively, usually once the histogram reaches two pixels high. That will usually give me a good color corrected and bright image. However if the highlights are blown then I will only move the black point slider to maintain the highlight data. Levels adjusting example:http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=1920899

> 7) If there are any distracting elements in the photo that can be
> cloned out, I will remove them to give the image the best look I
> can.

> 8) I boost the color saturation on any color that is not as vibrant
> as it could be.
With a good exposure and acurate white balance the "sony color" problem has not been an issue for me. And I usually need to boost some colors +15. Although I usually tend to not boost red as much or at all.

> 9) The finshed images are then saved in a lossless format, that way
> I can return to the image at any time and just crop and sharpen it
> for any needed photosize for printing.
I save the image as a psd file. If I have any layers or such I want to save those for later refinement if needed. I don't presave the image but just work off a jpg or jpgs in layers.

> 10) After resizing the photo for the web I use Unsharp Mask (USM) to get
> the sharpness as close as possible to that of the original scene
> and then post it.
My usual web values for USM are amount=100%, radius=.5, threshold=0 to 3 depending on noise. 0 for a low to no noise image and 3 for an image that has visible noise.

--
Shay

My Sony F707 Gallery: http://www.shaystephens.com/portfolio.asp