Good Question, Dean:
My process (BV - before Viveza
) is something like this:
1. Open raw image in ACR:
(a) Make Color Temp Adjustments as (seldom) necessary
(b) Adjust shadows/highlights per histogram and "look"
(c) Adjust the Clarity Vibrance Sliders
(d) Do "capture sharpening"
(c) Make Lens Adjustments per ACR database for lenses
2. Open image in PS (I am using PS6 now)
(a) Make any "global adjustments" necessary (color casts, etc.)
(c) crop for preferred "aspect ratio" (most of the time)
(c) Make selections for specific areas (almost always for the sky; often for water, white water, and foreground elements that will be sharpened, or need other adjustments) and save selections in their own channels. This is sometimes really picky work and very time consuming. If there are, for example, trees and foliage jutting up into a blue sky area, I can spend literally hours on a selection (usually will only do this if I know I may print an image - so the image here was pretty much a "quick and dirty" magic wand selection and then some "cleanup").
(d) When necessary, do shadow/highlights adjustments (sometimes, this involves layering more than one image and using a Third Party program like Photomatix HDR software, to get the look I want, or painting layers from differently adjusted versions of the same image. All time-consuming and "fiddly."
(e)convert to lab color space and do a straight curves adjustment for both of the color channels (a/b) - often I do these on different selections. Note that if you use layers alot, this workflow is a bear, because the trip over and back to and from lab color space requires you to flatten them (making the whole idea of layers less useful).
(f) convert back to RGB color; re-size for intended output (lately most of that has been for web) and sharpen based on final output. For sharpening,
up until very recently, I have been using unsharp mask (tried the so-called "smart sharpen" and went back to USM). Sometimes I will use a sharpening mask process developed by the late Bruce Frazer (see, "Real World Sharpening" by Frazer and Schewe), but mostly for printing.
AFTER VIVEZA ("AV")"
With Viveza and another software I purchased called Photokit PK Sharpener (this is a "Pixel Genius" Software product and the "brainchildren" of Pixel Genius was a group of "geeks" including Bruce Frazer and Jeff Schewe, who are generally considered the guru's of sharpening and re-sizing. They were also responsible for a software known as Genuine Fractals (now owned by OneOne I think and called something else, but the same engine) the workflow changes a bit:
1. Same basic changes in ACR, except I no longer do any capture sharpening (ACR slider now set to 0). I never do any global contrast adjustment in ACR (I have read that you need to be very careful about the sharpening, contrast, etc., at early stages, because it effects noise (and therefore NR).
2. Open in PS (here is where the process is a "quantum" change):
(a) Crop (note that PS6 now has a "non-destructive" crop tool, much like the tool in ACR and LR (some people crop, straighten, etc. in ACR - I don't - mainly as a matter of comfort level and familiarity) for preferred aspect ratio (I print many of my own images at 13 x 19 so I'll often use that or a 5 x 7 ratio) - but am starting to think outside the box more on that these days.
(b) I use Photokit's algorithm for "capture" sharpening (some people call it "pre-sharpening"; some skip it all together. Jury is still out for me on this step). I may also change when in the workflow I do my sharpening steps, as a result of learning more about Nik and Photokit softwares.
(c) Now there is a choice between making global adjustments here or in Viveza. As I learn more about Viveza, I start to see where it will probably be the FIRST place I go now, after opening and cropping.
This is the place where there is both a time saving, and I am becoming more and more convinced, a quality increase. With Nik products, you no longer have to make manual selections. The U-point Technology does that for you, for the most part. The learning curve here, is learning where to set the "control points" and why; and how the technology works when you do that and make some very simple slider adjustments. Behind the scenes, U-point is creating sophisticated masks. No more hours of fiddly selecting; no more halos; no more trying to decide which tool will best select; or which channel to work in. And, within Viveza, there are all the controls I normally use in PS proper: Levels, Curves, the eyedropper tool, even a color replacement function. This creates a much more effective way of making adjustments to the dark areas in photos, bringing up the shadows and/or brightness - just in the pixels you want it for -- and lowering brightness, increasing or decreasing saturation, adjusting RGB colors, etc. Its all pretty easy using sliders.
(d) It will be rare now for me to use the lab process anymore.
(e) After applying Viveza adustments, I will again re-size for intended output and use the Photokit Sharpener's "output" sharpening algorithm. Have a long way on the learning curve for that software, as I am currently trying to master the benefits of the Viveza software.
), we can spend some time learning how to make our images more "presentable."
) posted a rather long list of items that needed "fixing" (and most importantly, why). I have made some new corrections and the "after" version here will have them. But its still a Kindegarten effort.
.