Post editing steps and advice

Hi,

Could someone please walk me through the post editing steps and what works best for you and why? For example, do you begin with adjusting the exposure and move on with the saturation? Curves first and then shadow/highlight adjustment?

I have A basic understanding of post editing but often times find it difficult to decide what to do next for example should I denoise first before increasing the sharpness or vice versa?

Thanks a lot

What software are you using?

Sure. I shoot Canon and use Canon's DPP, LR, PS and/or DXO PL (as plugin if necessary). LR version is 7.5 and the latest PC CC version.

1. Plug card into reader. Open DPP - Select All - Quick Check - Full Screen and X unwanted or unusable files. Delete X'd files.

2. Use Image Capture (Mac) to download files to desktop. Rename and import into LR. Once in LR drag folder to external drive.

3. During LR import my standard Colour Profile, Lens Corrections, Clarity and DeHaze are Auto applied using Default Develop settings. For portraits I set it up so a portrait Profile is applied or I use a ColorChecker Passport profile.

4. I apply custom NR settings based on ISO to all files using this.


5. I then apply this to one or all files. Last tool - Personalized Auto Tone. This plug-in fine tunes what the new Auto Tone (Sensei) thinks it should look like.


6. If necessary send file to PS or DXO and export back. Flag and hide original CS2 file.

7. Start editing. Check to make sure Sensei, particularly exposure is to my liking. Apply various adjustments if needed. Range Mask, Radial/Graduated filters, Cloning/Healing and Brush adjustments. H/S/L's Targeted Adjustment Tool. It works like U Point in other software.

If I apply step 5 to all files and if I don't need to apply any adjustments in steps 6 or 7, I can have 100 exported files on my desktop in about 20 minutes.

flykiller said:

Hi,

Could someone please walk me through the post editing steps and what works best for you and why? For example, do you begin with adjusting the exposure and move on with the saturation? Curves first and then shadow/highlight adjustment?

I have A basic understanding of post editing but often times find it difficult to decide what to do next for example should I denoise first before increasing the sharpness or vice versa?

Thanks a lot

Click to expand...

My first step is not involved with software > I carefully examine the image to determine whether it's a close representation of my vision when exposed. Afterwards my process:

Tone

• exposure [not always first]
• white balance
• black & White points
• shadows & highlights
• details [includes color/luminance noise & sharpening]
• crop

Color adjust specific color vibrance & saturation individually

Artistic Effects

• dynamic contrast
• blur
• vignette
• dodge&burn
• B&W
• etc ...

Final sharpening applied appropriate to intended use

Above is my general outline ... many times a majority of the steps listed are simple check and move on. I use On1 Photo Raw for 90% of my PP.

CameraCarl said:

What software are you using?

Click to expand...

That was what I thought at first but since no specifics I decided to just reply

flykiller said:

Hi,

Could someone please walk me through the post editing steps and what works best for you and why? For example, do you begin with adjusting the exposure and move on with the saturation? Curves first and then shadow/highlight adjustment?

I have A basic understanding of post editing but often times find it difficult to decide what to do next for example should I denoise first before increasing the sharpness or vice versa?

Thanks a lot

Click to expand...

A lot probably depends on what you're using.

For me:

Plug card into reader.

Import into LR (creating/applying to appropriate folder along with keywords).

Cull (delete images that are not keepers)

If I used a WB target, I apply and sync it along with Lens Corrections across all images (other than this, I never do bulk edits of any kind).

Put image into the Develop module.

Click on Auto in Adjust to see if it does anything for me. About half the time it provides a suitable starting point. If it doesn't, Ctrl Z and adjust Exposure, Highlight, shadow, white, black (in that order). Sometimes I'll goof around with saturation, but usually not.

Right click > Edit in Photoshop. It's in PS that I do the bulk of my editing. I'll use mostly adjustment layers and will use a layer for each element that I'm addressing; hair gets a layer, skin gets its own set of layers, eyes, etc. It's not uncommon for me to end up with a dozen or more layers.

Crop if needed.

Save a layered TIFF (it's saved along with the original raw inside of my LR catalog). This is my original raw and my "developed" finished product.

For a given output I'll resize as needed > convert to desired color profile > sharpen as needed. For example, if I'm going to upload an image to my Facebook page, I'll size it to 2048 on the long side (960 on the top side if it's in portrait orientation) > convert to sRGB > sharpen > Export to PNG 24 bit > preserve details > embed color profile > export to desired location.

I don't know if it's the right way, but it works for me.

I am using Affinity Photo and I also use Capture One Express for Sony

Thanks to everyone for the detailed responses. It gave me a better understanding of your post edit workflow.

I have posted most of this a number of times because a common problem is that photographers jump into Lightroom without understanding how it works.

I'll post it again as an answer to your question.

The key to working in Lightroom is organization.

The first thing to do is organize how you store images on your hard drives. I'll assume the images are stored on a non-OS internal drive or on external drives.

If you are using a Mac then name your image storage drive something that makes sense and can tell anyone that it is your image storage drive.

In Windows there is a problem in that Windows will automatically give any new or external drive that is plugged into the computer the next available drive letter.

I recommend that you change the drive letter of any image storage drive to something in the last half of the alphabet using Windows' Disk Management. When you do this the drive letter is sticky and as long as there are drive letters closer to the beginning of the alphabet available Windows won't reassign the drive letter. My internal and external image hard drives have drive letters between U and Z. Each drive has a unique name as well.

There is no communications between the OS file management software and Lightroom. To maintain your Lightroom organization you must move or rename images within Lightroom.

You also need to have a good cataloging scheme (mine duplicates my image storage scheme), and have an organized way to work in the Develop Module for your images.

Most of us think of the subjects of our images, not the dates we too took the images so a subject based file storage scheme makes sense to me. My scheme is based on stacked folders and names with the date as only part of the name for the actual folder that contains the images.

My Photos>France>Paris>Eiffel Tower 150813 where 150813 would be the date in the YYMMDD format. The Paris folder might also contain other folders such as Eiffel Tower 140602 and Louvre 1508012.

In Lightroom Collection Sets can contain other Collection Sets or be simple Collections so I use a stacked Collection Sets & Collections scheme, I don't start with a Collection Set called My Photos since LR itself serves as the top level Collection. The LR Catalog scheme for the above would have a Collection Set Called France, then a Collection Set called Paris and finally a simple Collection called Eiffel Tower 150813, etc. It would be (note I have indicated in parenthesis which is a Collection Set and which is a simple Collection):

France (Collection Set)>Paris(Collection Set)>Eiffel Tower 150813 (Collection) plus Collections for Eiffel Tower 140602 and Louvre 1508012.

Lightroom also lets you make Collections for special purposes. For instance, if you wanted to print a book of images from a trip to France, a wedding, etc. you might create a Collection of just the images you want to put into the book. With the new face recognition capability of LR it is also easy to create Collections of people.

The beauty of placing the same image in multiple Collections is that the image is not copied since a Collection is just a list of the addresses of where the images are stored on the hard disk. Very little space is used on your hard disk for the list of addresses when you place the same image in multiple Collections.

You also have the option of renaming your actual image files. One way of naming them might be Louvre 1508012-001 through Louvre 1508012-999. Personally, I don't rename my RAW files but I rename and sequentially number the JPGs I Export for use on the web or on a phone or tablet.

Using a top down folder scheme lets me easily find images using image viewer programs such as FastStone or even the OS file explorer. The Collection Scheme does the same in Lightroom, and adding keywords expands the search capabilities in Lightroom, making it even easier to find a single image or similar images.

Organization is also important in the Develop Module. The Basic Panel controls are arranged in the top down order in that Adobe thinks is the best order to make adjustments, and it is a very good order to use, but not always the best.

The order in which you make adjustments can vary, depending on the image. A good rule to use is to always correct the worst thing first then go back to the top down order.

Here are some tutorials on the Lightroom Library Module.

B&H - Tim Grey - Getting Started With Lightroom 5

Martin Evening - Lightroom Photo Import: Digital Photography Review

Martin Evening - The Lightroom catalog: Digital Photography Review

B&H - Tim Grey - Organizing Photos with Adobe Lightroom - YouTube

B&H - Tim Cooper - Adobe Lightroom: The Library Module, Order from Chaos - YouTube

One of the best editing work flows I have found is the Five Step Tango by Jack Davis.

http://www.creativelive.com/courses/five-step-tango-global-optimizing-jack-davis

Here is my modified version, but as I said earlier it is necessary to remain flexible in what order you apply changes to your images.

Five Step Tango for Lightroom by Jack Davis with Modifications

1. X-Rite ColorChecker Passport Camera Calibration and/or WB then Crop. If desired you can adjust the WB & Tint for artistic purposes but I only do this after setting the correct WB using the ColorChecker Passport or a WB card.

1. Auto - With a bit of tweaking this works about 80% of the time for "normal" images. If you don't like the results just smile and tweak the results or just hit Undo and make the adjustments manually. Note that the latest versions of LR have a much improved Auto mode but it is likely the image will still need tweaking.

1. Exposure - Adjust this for the mid-tones, not the highlights or shadows.

1. Check or set the Whites and/or Blacks by using Shift plus double clicking Whites and/or Blacks. You can also hold down the Alt (Option) key while moving the sliders - this will display only the pixels that are pure white or pure black as appropriate.

1. Clarity

Shadows

Highlights

It is worth noting that adjusting any of the five exposure controls will have some effect on the other four. If you adjust the Highlights or Shadows after setting the Whites and Blacks you should recheck and tweak the Whites and Blacks if necessary.

1. Vibrance

Contrast if necessary

1. HSL - rarely

1. Creative Sharpening unless the image will be edited in a second program such as Photoshop

Noise Reduction, Noise Ninja, etc. - rarely since I shoot mostly at ISO 100 or 200

1. Lens Corrections (this can be done on import if desired or delayed till this step)

1. Post-Crop Vignetting or Radial Gradient Filter for Vignetting

Add Grain - rarely

1. Edit in Photoshop, etc. as needed.

--
Living and loving it in Pattaya, Thailand. Canon 7D - See the gear list for the rest.