Struggling with PP. Help needed...

[anilkulkarnir]

Hi,
I am struggling doing my PP and I use Adobe PS CS2. I usually capture Landscapes, Portraits and Macros. So, can any one suggest the exact workflow to be followed while doing PP in Adobe CS2 or any related tutorials?
It will be really helpful for me. I need to know the flow as to what all changes are required for a photo and in what order have they to be applied.
Regards,
Anil

[Murtasma]

This thread probably should have been created in the post processing section since this section is about tutorials users have written.

I will start off by saying for each each I make my work flow changes depending on what I want to do with the image. I don't think there is a right way but in general I start like this.

1. Look at the image. Ask yourself what do you want to change in the image. What works? What doesn't work?
2. Open your image and decide on cropping then crop the image
3. Correct any color casts
4. Remove distracting elements
5. Curve / Level Adjustments
6. Hue / Saturation Adjustment
7. Localized Curve / Hue / Saturation Adjustments with Masking
8. Left over tweaks

[anilkulkarnir]

Thanks a lot. Will try it out for sure.
Anil

[Murtasma]

Step 1 is the most important. I've found that the more time I spent looking at an image and deciding what I need to do with it to get it where I want the less time I spend in photoshop.

[Shim]

The very first thing to do is drag your background layer onto the copy icon (second from the right at the bottom of the layers palate). Then get use to working with layers and adjustment layers.

By working with layers you can turn them on and off to see the before and after results.

If it is really critical, open a second file of the same image so you can compare and have them side by side if your monitor is big enough and always look at your numbers in the info palate as well as checking the histogram.

[maritimer]

Here's a tip a pro bird photographer friend of mine gave me when I first started snapping away :

Do whatever adjustments you like, but always do any sharpening absolutely last thing before you're ready to save the image. Sharpening does the most degrading to images and I noticed a difference right away when I started doing it last thing instead of first thing.

[RexK_Cozumel]

I would crop last after all the other adjustments are finished. I have found that sometimes a part of the image that I would have cropped out turns out to be interesting after all the adjustments are made. Oh and as already stated sharpening should be done after all the adjustments are made.