What's your Photoshop workflow?

[WhiteLight]

Been learning a bit of PS and definitely it's very powerful with so many many options, that it's kinda overwhelming especially when you get started.

So... how do you folks go about when you download new RAW images and sit down to edit?
on general photos & those special ones?

 

[hark]

I found this video to be helpful which focuses on some of the main tools to use in Photoshop. It's definitely long (more of a seminar), but it goes over some of Photoshop's key features.

 

[Dave_W]

I start in LR and do my cropping and horizon straightening and some minor corrections and then bring it over to Photoshop. Once there I evaluate it for noise. If it's a high ISO or an HDR with extra noise I will take it into Dfine. If not, I will go directly to Viveza and do the bulk of my global editing there and then return it to PS. Once back in PS I will do my specific fixes as needed. Once I'm happy with everything I will then bring the image into "output sharpener" and will sharpen depending upon what the output is to be (ie - display or print). At this point I flatten out all the layers (this greatly reduces the overall file size but locks all your changes) and save. Saving it this way automatically puts it back in Lightroom where I can export it with my watermark or upload it to my web site.

Needless to say, Nik suite is an integral part of my overall work flow.

 

[Horoscope Fish]

I've been working with Scott Kelby's "Photoshop for Digital Photographers" a *lot* recently and the book has just been phenomenal. He lays out, in the initial chapters, an entire workflow that goes from using Bridge to import your shots, quickly purge the crap and rate the keepers (so fast, so easy), and then use Adobe Camera RAW to do the bulk of your editing before finally going into the Photoshop application per se.

The opening chapters *alone* make this book worth owning. I was never a big fan of either Bridge OR Camera RAW, but now? Now that I really understand how to use these applications, I'd saw off my own limbs before I'd let go of either of them. Go to the link, click on the "LOOK INSIDE" section and go to "First Pages" to see what I mean. He lays everything out for you, step by step. I created a "crib notes" version of the steps he outlines and keep it at my computer station for reference.



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[jwstl]

My Photoshop workflow is to avoid Photoshop as much as possible. The majority of my image editing can be done in a program such as Lightroom that supports plug-ins. I can access all the B&W conversion tools, noise reduction etc. from Topaz or Nik. Photoshop is saved for advanced work with layers etc.

 

[wud]

I started doing the first corrections in LR too, goes way faster.

Afterwards I go to PS but I dont really have a workflow, it all depends on the picture. I've set my workspace to "photography" (right corner, almost at the top) so I got easy access to the most used adjustment layers.

With adjustment layers, you get a layer mask on top - you can invert this to white, then changes wont show until you brush over the areas where you want it, with a black brush. Same goes if you want to remove some adjustments from just areas, just paint with a white brush.


If you wanna keep your adjustment layers, but make a layer with it all merged into, then (on mac) press shift-ctrl-cmd-e.


I make a lot of copies of the layers if I made an adjustment (cmd-j), so I can delete them again without deleting the whole workflow..

Ctrl-alt + dragging your mouse from left to right og reverse, lets you easily scale your brushes e.g. bigger or smaller.


Hmm, what else..
Just started using Viveza from Nik Collection, works really good. On these you can also make a mask, to brush this adjusment of (or on) some areas - hold alt down and press "create new fill or adjustment layer" all the way at the bottom below your layers, to paint it black.

Do learn the short cut keys for your different tools, its the best EVER just being able to pressing a letter and then you got your brush/lasso tool/whatever. Shift + short cut key lets you change between the tools this letter is assigned to (like g can change between paint bucket and gradient tool).

Let me know if this was confusing reading, lol.

 

[hark]

I've been working with Scott Kelby's "Photoshop for Digital Photographers" a *lot* recently and the book has just been phenomenal. He lays out, in the initial chapters, an entire workflow that goes from using Bridge to import your shots, quickly purge the crap and rate the keepers (so fast, so easy), and then use Adobe Camera RAW to do the bulk of your editing before finally going into the Photoshop application per se.

The opening chapters *alone* make this book worth owning. I was never a big fan of either Bridge OR Camera RAW, but now? Now that I really understand how to use these applications, I'd saw off my own limbs before I'd let go of either of them. Go to the link, click on the "LOOK INSIDE" section and go to "First Pages" to see what I mean. He lays everything out for you, step by step. I created a "crib notes" version of the steps he outlines and keep it at my computer station for reference.



...

Horoscope Fish, I appreciate this info. Although I don't have Photoshop, I use PSE 10 and Lightroom 4. Since I am just starting to edit with Lightroom, I decided to read Scott Kelby's intro chapters in his Lightroom book to see how he organizes his photos. Wowzer! Amazing info there! I had some photos imported into Lightroom, but since reading his info, I removed them and will organize everything according to his workflow. Thanks for the tip on Scott Kelby!

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

I've been working with Scott Kelby's "Photoshop for Digital Photographers" a *lot* recently and the book has just been phenomenal. He lays out, in the initial chapters, an entire workflow that goes from using Bridge to import your shots, quickly purge the crap and rate the keepers (so fast, so easy), and then use Adobe Camera RAW to do the bulk of your editing before finally going into the Photoshop application per se.

The opening chapters *alone* make this book worth owning. I was never a big fan of either Bridge OR Camera RAW, but now? Now that I really understand how to use these applications, I'd saw off my own limbs before I'd let go of either of them. Go to the link, click on the "LOOK INSIDE" section and go to "First Pages" to see what I mean. He lays everything out for you, step by step. I created a "crib notes" version of the steps he outlines and keep it at my computer station for reference.



...

I have really gotten into using Bridge to look at and cull. The only difference is I don't like the import by Bridge. It does not put the date in a format I like so I use ViewNX2 just for importing and when through it will automatically open Bridge for me.

 

[BackdoorArts]

I start in LR and do my cropping and horizon straightening and some minor corrections and then bring it over to Photoshop. Once there I evaluate it for noise. If it's a high ISO or an HDR with extra noise I will take it into Dfine. If not, I will go directly to Viveza and do the bulk of my global editing there and then return it to PS. Once back in PS I will do my specific fixes as needed. Once I'm happy with everything I will then bring the image into "output sharpener" and will sharpen depending upon what the output is to be (ie - display or print). At this point I flatten out all the layers (this greatly reduces the overall file size but locks all your changes) and save. Saving it this way automatically puts it back in Lightroom where I can export it with my watermark or upload it to my web site.

Needless to say, Nik suite is an integral part of my overall work flow.

What Dave said. Almost exactly. I'm glad I'm not the only one that flattens. It would be nice to save all those layers for later tweaking, but dang if it doesn't fill the hard drive quickly!! And even moreso with Smart Layers for the Nik stuff. The only thing I'd add is that I'll sometimes save with the layers if I'm not 100% satisfied with the edit so I can come back to it, which usually means I've got a bunch of control points floating around from Viveza.

 

[wud]

I really messed up my LR library, maybe I should look at Scott Kelby too. Could be great not having to save all the files manually, 2 versions. I do have actions for this (in Photoshop) but logo I assign by brush. It would probably be smart keeping it all in LR, as to now where its either in LR or PS, even with some images both places. What a mess!

 

[Dave_W]

A couple of things I've learned about Lightroom over the years that I feel are important enough to share

- Choose the option "automatically write changes to XMP" under the catalogue settings. This way you will always update the changes permanently and will not have to remember to run saves in order to write the info to the file. It may cause you to wait a few minutes before closing out LR after doing a lot of work on your images but this is minor to the downside of losing all your changes if your catalogue becomes corrupt.

- Set your "Back up catalogue" option to once a day. You can always opt to skip the back up if you've not made a lot of changes but it's a very good idea to back it up often. Your catalogue can become corrupt fairly easily and it only has to happen once for you to realize what a pain it is to go back and redo all your changes

 

[BackdoorArts]

One thing to be careful of with the catalog backups, when your library gets big you can start sucking up a lot of disc space with backup after backup. I prefer to backup my entire machine (I use Time Machine on my Mac) and only back up my catalog after a major addition, and make sure I go back and delete all but the last two catalog backups.

 

[Scott Murray]

I use most of my editing in LR and only major changes or working with layers etc I go to PS, I ahve done a lot of graphic design and this is where I solely use PS, but photo editing I find LR nice and easy and all that I need.