Well this is the last part of our three part series on work-flow and I hope you are finding some helpful ideas to keep that flow going.
So now that we have adjusted our in-camera settings to where we want them, processed our images in Adobe Camera Raw,we are now ready to bring that almost fabulous photo in Photoshop.
The first step that I like to do with my image is to edit for a master file. This means that the editing done will be done with the intention of saving it as a 16bit unsharpened image.
I usually look at my histogram again and see if it needs any minor contrast tweaking. One thing I notice, especially with digital editing is that taking your eyes off an image for a brief period can be a good thing.
When you sit and stare at an image until you can no longer blink, I think you sometimes lose a little perspective in things such as contrast,tone and saturation. I think that is why sometimes when you go back and look at an image you edited last week, it may appear flat as a pancake in the contrast realm. So it is important to give your eyes a break once in while.
So I may or may not do a slight curves adjustment. Then I will look at Saturation and also color balance. If everything looks good I will flatten any layers I have created, keyword my image and save to a master file. The master file contains 16bit unsharpened images and I also will save this as an 8bit file in categorized folders.
The 8bit files I will use for publication or any other uses where I may just apply some sharpening and be good to go. I can also browse them much quicker than 16bit files.
The 16bit files are used for converting to specific sizes for different stock agencies or any other uses that require re-sizing and interpolation. They also fair much better if I decide to go back an do any curves adjustments or the like.
So that’s a little how I do things in a very brief nutshell. At a later date we will get into all the other editing specifics of Photoshop such as using masks, layers, blending options and all sorts of cool stuff.
For now though I just wanted to give a quick run through of work-flow to give an idea of just one of many ways you can work from camera to a completed image in the least destructive and productive way.
So that’s all for today and hope this may have got you thinking about your work-flow and has helped further your quest for growth.
Leave a Reply