I'm a big fan of Hudson Henry's Approaching the Scene and Office Hours series and based on some things said there recently I wonder if perhaps my approach to post processing has been all less than optimum. I figured a broad discussion of PP pros and cons and how my smart friends do things might provide a smoother workflow, better results, or hopefully both. I also realize that there are a million ways to PP imaeges
My current processing goes like this.
1. Import RAW images from the memory card into LR Classic with keywords. Originals are stored on my Thunderbolt RAID in folders by year, then sub folders within a year by location, trip, subject, or whatever seems right for a particular set of shots. Collections got used a lot up until 2018 and less so in 2019 but I shifted to a more keyworded classification system after going through Steve's Library Module course…which is super and taught me a great deal so thanks for that one Steve…still hoping for a Develop Module one.
2. Browse images in Library module and give the ones I want to PP 1 star
3. Review 1 star and eliminate any that are duplicates or almost so or not as worthy.
4. Shift to Develop module for adjustment and cropping
5. Use noise reduction and sharpen in LR if minimal needed
6. Pass to either Denoise AI or Sharpen AI for more work if needed…although I've not really figured out why both are needed as Denoise also sharpens and Sharpen also reduces noise.
7. Export for output…almost all my output is for the blog so I've got a LR export setup for that. Exported images get a color flag for easier finding them later and also get put in a year's keeper collection that gets synced to Adobe so I can show them to people on my iPhone or iPad when out and about.
8. Done…next image.
Some image sets get passed out to Aurora HDR for processing into HDR and some get exported to Luminar 4 for things that it does but the majority skip both of those.
A few get passed out to Photoshop for work there as I generally don't do a whole lot of blending shots with different exposure and most dodging/burning, artifact removal and other PP work can be done without going out to PS.
I've also got SnapHealCK, some of the free ON1 stuff, and Luminar Flex in the software bag although those don't get used too much…Snapheal was my most used of those until Luminar 4 added the magic people or trash can remover to their app…and my goal here is not to start up the whole debate about removing people or trash cans again as whatever an individual likes is just fine with me. I've even replaced a few skies…especially if they're really boring or whatever but again the goal is not to revisit that topic.
In a recent Office Hours…there was some discussion about the benefits of Denoise AI vs PureRAW from DxO and whether preprocessing them in one or the other to reduce noise first is a better idea…they generally thought that PureRAW was superior in interface and noise reduction.
In several recent videos by Hudson…as well as others I follow…I see reference to doing noise reduction as the first step in PP although there's also reference to doing basic tone adjustments first then export for noise reduction then do further PP work…but that's perhaps looking at more serious PP work on images after tone/color/exposure/etc which isn't my norm.
So…the question is…is there a consensus that I should be doing things in a different order for either efficiency or results? What do the rest of ya'll do that's better and why?
One thing I'm seriously considering is taking a look at whether I need to carry a laptop on travels for PP on the road for the blog or whether taking an iPad and using LR Cloud until I get back…this would lighten the load and after importing the RAW files into LR on the iPad I would copy them back out to a couple of SSD drives for backup…I'll take the SSD drives anyway but replacing the MacBook Pro with my iPad would lighten the load. One thing I'm not sure about is the uncertainty of decently fast internet on the road…I've not really tried LR Cloud at all but if I can do all the processing locally and then only go to the cloud when I get back home and want to transfer the images with edits to my master LR Classic library. So…any comments for or against doing it that way and whether the lack of fast internet on the road (or maybe just a lack of internet period) presents much of a roadblock.
Sorry about the long post but I figured that knowing what I do now would get better suggestions on how to improve things.
My current processing goes like this.
1. Import RAW images from the memory card into LR Classic with keywords. Originals are stored on my Thunderbolt RAID in folders by year, then sub folders within a year by location, trip, subject, or whatever seems right for a particular set of shots. Collections got used a lot up until 2018 and less so in 2019 but I shifted to a more keyworded classification system after going through Steve's Library Module course…which is super and taught me a great deal so thanks for that one Steve…still hoping for a Develop Module one.
2. Browse images in Library module and give the ones I want to PP 1 star
3. Review 1 star and eliminate any that are duplicates or almost so or not as worthy.
4. Shift to Develop module for adjustment and cropping
5. Use noise reduction and sharpen in LR if minimal needed
6. Pass to either Denoise AI or Sharpen AI for more work if needed…although I've not really figured out why both are needed as Denoise also sharpens and Sharpen also reduces noise.
7. Export for output…almost all my output is for the blog so I've got a LR export setup for that. Exported images get a color flag for easier finding them later and also get put in a year's keeper collection that gets synced to Adobe so I can show them to people on my iPhone or iPad when out and about.
8. Done…next image.
Some image sets get passed out to Aurora HDR for processing into HDR and some get exported to Luminar 4 for things that it does but the majority skip both of those.
A few get passed out to Photoshop for work there as I generally don't do a whole lot of blending shots with different exposure and most dodging/burning, artifact removal and other PP work can be done without going out to PS.
I've also got SnapHealCK, some of the free ON1 stuff, and Luminar Flex in the software bag although those don't get used too much…Snapheal was my most used of those until Luminar 4 added the magic people or trash can remover to their app…and my goal here is not to start up the whole debate about removing people or trash cans again as whatever an individual likes is just fine with me. I've even replaced a few skies…especially if they're really boring or whatever but again the goal is not to revisit that topic.
In a recent Office Hours…there was some discussion about the benefits of Denoise AI vs PureRAW from DxO and whether preprocessing them in one or the other to reduce noise first is a better idea…they generally thought that PureRAW was superior in interface and noise reduction.
In several recent videos by Hudson…as well as others I follow…I see reference to doing noise reduction as the first step in PP although there's also reference to doing basic tone adjustments first then export for noise reduction then do further PP work…but that's perhaps looking at more serious PP work on images after tone/color/exposure/etc which isn't my norm.
So…the question is…is there a consensus that I should be doing things in a different order for either efficiency or results? What do the rest of ya'll do that's better and why?
One thing I'm seriously considering is taking a look at whether I need to carry a laptop on travels for PP on the road for the blog or whether taking an iPad and using LR Cloud until I get back…this would lighten the load and after importing the RAW files into LR on the iPad I would copy them back out to a couple of SSD drives for backup…I'll take the SSD drives anyway but replacing the MacBook Pro with my iPad would lighten the load. One thing I'm not sure about is the uncertainty of decently fast internet on the road…I've not really tried LR Cloud at all but if I can do all the processing locally and then only go to the cloud when I get back home and want to transfer the images with edits to my master LR Classic library. So…any comments for or against doing it that way and whether the lack of fast internet on the road (or maybe just a lack of internet period) presents much of a roadblock.
Sorry about the long post but I figured that knowing what I do now would get better suggestions on how to improve things.
