My First Post Processing step now is Lens Correction: I learned something that should have been obvious. Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and...

clickety

I learned something that should have been obvious.

Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and “remove chromatic aberration” boxes, both affect the histogram.

Upon reflection this makes sense. I had been doing this ‘somewhere later’ in my process without a second thought. Based on my observations, Lens Correction is going to be my very first action in post processing.

I suggest anyone consider this when doing post processing

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

That's exactly what I just started doing in my workflow. Now in LR you can move, or remove or rearrange the develop panels around. I put the Lens Correction on top so that it will remind me to do that first then do the basics then sharpening. I really like that we can rearrange the panel settings now.

clickety wrote:

I learned something that should have been obvious.

Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and “remove chromatic aberration” boxes, both affect the histogram.

Upon reflection this makes sense. I had been doing this ‘somewhere later’ in my process without a second thought. Based on my observations, Lens Correction is going to be my very first action in post processing.

I suggest anyone consider this when doing post processing

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I agree with this approach. Learned about it when doing night sky panoramas. Even very good wide angle lenses have fall off in the corners. Fixing that first makes visualizing other pieces of the puzzle much easier, at least for me.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Yes, lens correction and CA correction, as well as noise reduction are good first steps.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I believe it’s preferable to using lens correction in-camera, which many cameras support. I’ve noticed that doing it in camera can significantly slow down the burst rate, which makes sense as each frame needs to be processed. Just make sure you don’t have both in-Camera and correction in post enabled.

Photocraig

clickety wrote:

I learned something that should have been obvious.

Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and “remove chromatic aberration” boxes, both affect the histogram.

Upon reflection this makes sense. I had been doing this ‘somewhere later’ in my process without a second thought. Based on my observations, Lens Correction is going to be my very first action in post processing.

I suggest anyone consider this when doing post processing

I agree. However, it is buried way down in the menu so those, like me, who initially followed the Develop sequence top to bottom came upon this last, even after the very useful dehaze. Every time I try to figure out a "why or where" of an Adobe Product I try to place myself in the mindset of a crayon wielding Poster Maker.

Great products but they come from a different default position than the average old school photographer, IMO.

clickety

Fotoartist wrote:

Yes, lens correction and CA correction, as well as noise reduction are good first steps.

Then the second step should be noise reduction? Upon reflection it too seems logical, I’ll try that next. Do you find noise reduction beneficial at all ISO settings, I usually only do it for the higher ISOs?

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

It’s been my first step.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

clickety wrote:

I learned something that should have been obvious.

Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and “remove chromatic aberration” boxes, both affect the histogram.

Upon reflection this makes sense. I had been doing this ‘somewhere later’ in my process without a second thought. Based on my observations, Lens Correction is going to be my very first action in post processing.

I suggest anyone consider this when doing post processing

I learned the same way, do lens corrections first, then everything else. And now with the latest Lightroom update, you can move tools around in the develop module. Lens corrections is right underneath the Basic panel which makes it more accessible.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

clickety wrote:

I learned something that should have been obvious.

Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and “remove chromatic aberration” boxes, both affect the histogram.

Upon reflection this makes sense. I had been doing this ‘somewhere later’ in my process without a second thought. Based on my observations, Lens Correction is going to be my very first action in post processing.

I suggest anyone consider this when doing post processing

I read somewhere that said a good lightroom workflow was to simply work from the top of the panels down, in order, but one exception was the lens correction should be done first.

But don't all the adjustments affect the histogram? What is it about this particular adjustment that makes sense in putting it first?

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

clickety wrote:

I learned something that should have been obvious.

Yesterday in lightroom, I observed that when checking the “lens correction” and “remove chromatic aberration” boxes, both affect the histogram.

Upon reflection this makes sense. I had been doing this ‘somewhere later’ in my process without a second thought. Based on my observations, Lens Correction is going to be my very first action in post processing.

I suggest anyone consider this when doing post processing

Most of the post-processing software I've ever used takes care of those things automatically before you do anything else. Fixing lens distortion, chromatic aberration and lens vignetting should be done very early on, if not at the very beginning, of the
PP process.

clickety

JD750 wrote:

I read somewhere that said a good lightroom workflow was to simply work from the top of the panels down, in order, but one exception was the lens correction should be done first.

But don't all the adjustments affect the histogram? What is it about this particular adjustment that makes sense in putting it first?

I think it may save time by not causing other adjustments to require redoing?

I was trying a variation of Blackest’s idea of adjusting black and white points in the B/W mode. Using the sliders I ‘optimized’ those and switched back to color. Then realized I had not yet applied lens correction. While doing that I watched the histogram jump and jump again with chromatic aberration. My ‘perfect’ histogram had to be reset.

So it seems logical to lens correct first so all other adjustments are based upon a solid foundation that won’t change. This same logic may well apply to using B/W mode to adjust white/highlight and black/shadow as the second step in lightroom (I’m still experimenting with that).

I think it’s an improved approach that you may want to consider, let me know if it works for you.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

clickety wrote:

I think it may save time by not causing other adju... (show quote)

That does make sense. Thank you for the clear explaination.

Largobob

IMHO, if I know I am going to crop, I do that FIRST. To me, ya gotta start with isolating just the pixels you intend to keep before you adjust anything else.

Reason being, get rid of what you aren't going to use BEFORE you work on anything else. Often, when an image is cropped, one cuts very bright, or very dark, or edges/corners, or areas of unusual color/contrast. Each of these will affect the histogram.

Once the image contains the pixels you want to keep....then process!

Just my $.02

jgudpns Loc: Pensacola, FL

When I do my import into Lightroom, I have it preset to do lens correction automatically
Saves me to have to do it. On1 appears to apply it automatically.