RAW sharpening/NR workflow

[davidpet]

I just got a camera that came with SilkyPix for raw processing and am on a 30-day trial of Topaz. I was wondering what the best workflow would be between SilkyPix, Photoshop, and Topaz to get the best results. Should I leave out sharpening and noise reduction altogether in SilkyPix and do both in Photoshop with Topaz before doing further post-processing? Should the noise reduction come first and then the capture sharpening? Is InFocus good for that purpose, and which settings should I use? Should I only go through the trouble for higher ISO and let SilkyPix do everything for lower ISOs? thanks

I most likely will buy the bundle since I like the noise reduction and masking, and for just a little more I get a bunch more plug-ins including cool artsy ones. Since it happens to come with InFocus, I figured that might be better than sharpening in Silky with the noise still in and then denoising it in Topaz.

[davidpet]

By the way, I'm using Photoshop CS4 extended and will likely wait for CS6 before upgrading, so if they've improved the sharpening and NR in CS5, that won't help me here

[OsmosisStudios]

I generally dont do too much noise reduction on my images, though there are some times when it has been necessary. If you can help yourself at the time of shooting, you really should: shoot to overexpose a bit, and pull back in RAW processing to keep noise down.

Of course, as much as I can, I use flash to keep my ISO down and my light controlled.

[davidpet]

In those cases where it is needed, is it best to turn both sharpening and noise reduction to 0 in SilkyPix and then noise reduce in topaz, and then sharpen in Topaz, in that order, or is it better to do the deconvolution before de-noising and then de-noise what's left? What are good Topaz InFocus settings for capture sharpening? I will of course aim to keep the noise out when possible, but I want to get the most out of every shot even if it was taken at a high ISO.

[ishafizan]

i had a fz28 once and silkypix came with the package.

- often, i take in raw and adjust the WB with silkypix.
- save in tiff, and then do PP with cs4 (tone, curves, saturation, sharpening etc)
- i had topaz but didnt like the effects .. too extreme and can be 'unreal'. but i do use the 'correct exposure' at times. only when i feel there's something wrong abt the lighting/exposure

[BigFuzzy]

Though I know I'm not really answering your question in full, I think LightRoom 3 has possibly the best noise reduction software i've seen in ages.. plus it comes with all that other LR3 goodness. So, it it's an option, can you consider LR?