Al Denelsbeck

"D" <d@sympatico.ca> wrote in
news:zraZa.5841$ox5.646540@news20.bellglobal.com:

> I'm playing with the images I get from my digital camera with
> Photoshop 7 (just learning PS). I've done lots of tutorials (Janee
> and RetouchPro, Russell Brown and more) and I have '50 Fast Photoshop
> Techniques' book and now I am wondering which is the best ORDER to do
> the various 'repairs' an image might need or I might want to apply to
> an image for an effect. So far I am only making images for web sites
> and posting images on the web, so it doesn't seem to make much
> difference, but I feel I should get into the right practice,
> especially since I am planning to make actions to batch changes and I
> may in the future wish to make prints on other images.
>
> I guess I am generally confused about the theory of commands which
> make changes to the image itself and those which add layers and in
> what order these should be done, such as those below, which I seem to
> be using over and over again.
>
>
> A. crop
> B. rotate
> C. levels/curves/set white point
> D. filters
> E. skew or alter shape to fix distortion of buildings, etc.,
> F. selection to alter only a portion of the image (darken, lighten,
> blur etc.)
> G. resize w x h
> Y. sharpen (at the end, I know this much)
> Z. save for web (if appropriate).
>
> Is there a list or cheat sheet somewhere? Send me off for more
> reading, please.

Well, as, uh, "n8" said, there isn't a definitive way, at least not
that I've found. However, there are some things that may make it easier.

If your end result is *only* intended for web use, resize first. This
saves a tremendous amount of time with all other changes because they have
fewer pixels to screw with. BUT, this is shooting yourself in the foot if
you want multiple uses, such as web and printing, out of it, since you'll
end up doing it all twice.

If I know it will always need distortion or perspective adjustments
for whatever usage, I do this first, then crop off the skewed edges. This
way you know what you're keeping in the image, and you don't waste time
cloning out some bit of trash or scratches that later get cropped (I've
done this a few times).

Brightness and contrast before color, since they can seriously affect
saturation, shadow detail, and so on. Both of these before dodging, etc.

Resize and sharpen *before* esoteric effects or laying in text.
Sharpening can do terrible things to them.

Oh, and as a side tip, I always sharpen in LAB mode, Lightness
channel only, viewed at 200% and watching the highest contrast portion of
the image. If you're getting halos, back off. Works wonders. Occasionally
sharpening in one of the color channels (like Blue in RGB mode) adds a bit
of oomph to tricky areas, and many scanners don't respond well in certain
channels.

Hope this helps,


- Al.

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