MJPerini

This has been quite informative, especially Jack & R G. Thank you, even though I do not use Lightroom and only use PS rarely

I tend to think of post processing as a “First, do no harm “ exercise.
If the image does not need de-noise, don’t do it, I try to use all the pixels but will need to straighten and crop sometimes , I prefer to look at as close to a finished image as possible so I do it first. I try to limit what I do to just what I think the image needs.
Therefore a set list of procedures seems the opposite of that. As for things like lens corrections, I try to use lenses that don’t need it. I’ll also use several t/s lenses which are very rectilinear and otherwise well corrected
I realize I am in a small minority here.
So I’m not prescribing what I do to anyone else. Great lenses draw great images so I’m trying to make my pictures worthy of the lenses that drew them.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

I find it interesting that few or any mentioned the photographs they process. I would think it makes a difference. Many photograph flying things birds and airplanes. I do not. I mostly photograph stationary well lit things. Landscape, street scape, interesting buildings and the dreaded vacation pictures. I have the time to compose, focus and expose carefully.

My Adobe ( LrC&Ps), FOMO struck and I bought the Topaz stuff but it didn’t float by boat, workflow after thoughtless Import often looks like

Tinker with white balance - I shoot with auto balance to capture the cameras opinion to start with AS SHOT. For me WB is the most consequential color adjustment. I usually grab the slider and wave it around to see what moods it creates but I usually wind up with something near as shot.

Straighten and crop - Quickly crop to hide distractions without regard to aspect ratio. A common mistake I make is cropping too tight in camera which is not reparable. I thought this crop might focus the new Auto Tone adjustments but I couldn’t confirm this with experiments.

Tone Adjustment - starting with Auto Tone first adjust Exposure then Black and White, Highlights, Shadows, … often skipping contrast (confuses me). I’m stlll trying to learn curves but…


Selective tone adjust - pull out shadow areas, suppress blown out highlights and tone down destrastions.


(Whenever I see the need) dehaze clarity and/or texture. Same with color adjustments.

Sharpening and Noise - I do these together a yin and yang thing. I am typically pleased when this is not needed.

When I am happy with all the above I edit in Photoshop for distraction removal,Power lines, ugly signs, people. I am having good luck trying generative AI in Ps also. I always return PSD file to LrC for safekeeping and eventual export.

kcooke Loc: Alabama

Same here with my 5D4

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

REF lens correction - more over, that correction is only applied to the in-camera JPEG. For a RAW workflow with third-party software (i.e., not from the camera co), the lens corrections from the camera are not even applied to the RAW image.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I agree with your approach. Processing as necessary should be done to optimize, not to fill a period of time. I do agree that proceeding in a logical or proven sequence has merit. But it's not a "once through and done" process. I participated in a comprehensive post processing workshop last month. Our leader demonstrated to us the significant number of interconnections and dependencies among the various adjustments. He showed us numerous cases in which subsequent adjustments altered carefully done changes made earlier in the process.

So any sequence, if intended as directing one pass and done, is almost certain to yield final results not representative of what was intended.

Spagatz Loc: Worcester, MA

I apply lens corrections and personal profile and common key words at import, and make global and local adjustments to match color temp and density. Next I do picks and rejects and drag rejects into a subfolder, color code HDR and pano image components. If there are sensor dust spots, I remove from one file and apply to all. While pano and HDR is processing, I pick representative images to locally adjust, then apply the correction to similar images or lighting situations. Lastly go through the remaining images to reject or star rate them. Subsequent edits are individual, not linear.

Johanna Loc: Albuquerque, NM

I take pictures of belly dancers in a restaurant with very low light. I use a Nikon D850 and shoot 300 to 600 pictures per event. I do a first selection of raw images to consider using. Those that I edit go through these steps. Level (make vertical lines vertical), crop then adjust exposure & color. AS a group I then denoise, sharpen with Topaz and add my logo. Last Saturdays shoot I ended up with 89 useable pictures out of 633 images. It does take time!

jeff1234 Loc: Kirkland, WA

I always crop before doing anything else to cut down on processing time for things like denoise.

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

No.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

btbg

You are assuming that the image is completely edited before it is opened in photoshop. That may not be the case. For example sometimes I do my basic editing, then open the image in photoshop and then decide that it needs some masking and other changes. Then I send it back to acr. My understanding is the new edits are applied following the original edits. If I am wrong, please correct me.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

I am as dependent on the Zoom as the next guy JB... I need to start slowing down myself... Thanks for your input !

rfreudenheim

I favor your approach-doing any noise (grain) adjustment near the very end. Once the tif file returns to Lightroom I may do some final touch ups and make any final adjustments that improve the presence of the subject.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Is it more important to have the pixel count or the image...

For me it's the image.

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

I agree... I got into a bad habit a long time ago when I took someone's advice to always " SHOOT LARGE " to avoid missing out on something you can always crop. Since I am a slider junkie by nature, noise became my best friend... NOT !