# Photoshop Order of Operations



## AverageJoe (Feb 28, 2009)

I'm wondering if it matters when I do what, here's what I typically do in the order I do it:


Open JPEG
Crop subject
Sharpen
Sharpen Edges
Levels or Auto Levels
Resize image
Save
What's everyone's take?  Does it matter?


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## dxqcanada (Feb 28, 2009)

I would change step 1

1 Open RAW file

or

Use Canon utility to convert RAW to TIFF

1 Open TIFF file


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## Overread (Feb 28, 2009)

Sharpening should be the last stage of your editing - it can cause your problems if you sharpen first and then start editing things like levels.
Further when resizing you lose sharpness in a shot - so before resizing perform your sharpen - then after resizing sharpen the shot again - chances are you will need a lesser amount of sharpening the second time around.


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## AverageJoe (Feb 28, 2009)

dxqcanada said:


> I would change step 1
> 
> 1 Open RAW file
> 
> ...


 Every other weekend I shoot about 100-200 shots of cats and dogs for a animal rescue, managing that many RAW files would get annoying fast considering I'm sending the agency files that are about 650 pixels wide.

Overread, I'll take that into consideration and try some samples, thanks.


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## Honu (Mar 22, 2009)

I can't  remember where i found this list but I've been using it - 


Crop
Contrast
Brighteners
Color
Defects
Sharpness
Any thoughts on this list?

I just don't know where noise correction would fit in - would that fall under defects?


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## Overread (Mar 22, 2009)

For me I would move crop to just before sharpening and I would put colours higher up on the list. Cropping very much changes the view on the image and can be well used to remove waste space or to draw attention to a key element - however sometimes you need to see the shot as it is finished in editing to fully understand where it is best to crop a shot. 
Colour also needs to really be hammered out near the start of editing. For me I use RAW to try to set white balance to the right amount -- I then use curves/levels to correct colour casts in the shot. I think its important to do this first before you look to boosting or reducing things in contrast, brightness and saturation.

Noise correction for me is just before sharpening - its not really going to majorly affect the end result on the other edits and sometimes things like contrast editing or curves can lead to more noise being made in a shot. In those cases it might be better to reduce noise first so as to reduce the boosting effect of other edits. I try not to use hardfast rules amd be adaptable to what I get in each shot. 
Also note that (when working properly) I will save a shot as a PSD (or a TIFF) before noise and sharpening - and then after that I will flatten the layers and then use 2 layers and layer masks to selectivly reduce noise in the background areas and to boost sharpness in the infocus areas - sometimes the main subject areas will get a lesser noise reduction as well if there is bad noise in the shot. One does not need to sharpen background noise just as one does not always need to remove noise (and also reduce sharpness) from the main subject areas


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## abraxas (Mar 22, 2009)

AverageJoe said:


> I'm wondering if it matters when I do what, here's what I typically do in the order I do it:
> 
> 1. Open JPEG
> 2. Crop subject
> ...



It matters. Try;

1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 4, 7


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## Captain IK (Mar 22, 2009)

Should levels (contrast, brightness and colour temp) be adjusted while still in RAW format?


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## Miami Photographer (Mar 22, 2009)

Thanks for sharing!!


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## Overread (Mar 23, 2009)

I think its best to adjust as much in RAW as you can - the limit with RAW (at least with my RAW editer I am not sure of others) is the fact that any changes are global - they affect the while image - whilst in the editing program you can be selective as to what areas get what editing. If you can edit it in RAW then do it


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## photogincollege (Mar 23, 2009)

Mine is.

1. Open image.
2. Adjust white balance, open in photoshop.
3. Copy background (non destructive editing)
4.  Crop if needed.
5. Curves, 1 for luminosity, 1 for color.
6. Any dodging/burning etc. here.
7. Unsharp mask.
8. Save image.


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## DRoberts (Apr 3, 2009)

I agree with Overread on this. Do as much correction as you can to the original image before crop, resize and final sharpness.
My order is...open file is obvious so I won't include that in my list.
1. duplicate file and work on copy...
2. levels
3. curves
4. final color adjustments
5. exposure/contrast fine tuning
6. crop
7. resize
8. sharpening/blurring whichever I'm doing...
9. details ie...cloning, healing, etc...
10. optional conversions


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## Big Mike (Apr 3, 2009)

I don't know if it's been mentioned in here yet, but it should be noted that Lightroom has a workflow that is different from Photoshop in that everything you do is non-destructive.  Changes that you make are saved, but not applied to the image...so it doens't matter what order you do things in.  You can even bring the image into Photoshop, do some things there, then bring it back into Lightroom.

I've read that some of the big names in Photoshopery are hoping that Photoshop itself adopts this type of workflow in the future.

This doens't really answer any questions in this thread...but I thought is was worthy of note.


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## Mindy (Apr 3, 2009)

That's good info there, Mike. Right now I am trying out elements 7 and have wondered how lightroom would fit in. I think I'll give that a shot as well.


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## MHVishal (Apr 28, 2009)

I just want to say thanks for this even though  I use arc soft photo studio 5 for my coloring I still found it useful as it helped me to work out what order to things in so thank you skins always been the hardest thing for me to color. a powerful  work flow automation tool that lets you easily


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## stsinner (Apr 28, 2009)

Big Mike said:


> I don't know if it's been mentioned in here yet, but it should be noted that Lightroom has a workflow that is different from Photoshop in that everything you do is non-destructive.  Changes that you make are saved, but not applied to the image...so it doens't matter what order you do things in.  You can even bring the image into Photoshop, do some things there, then bring it back into Lightroom.



This is also true for Picasa.  Changes aren't saved to your image until you click on, "Save to Disk."  Even then a backup is made so that later you can revert the image if you wish.


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## Andrew Sun (Apr 28, 2009)

I edit every photo accordingly, I don't apply a certain order of things to all my photos because some needs color balance, some don't, some needs cropping, some don't etc..

However, I rarely ever use the Sharpen function as I only edit and keep photos of the sharpest quality to begin with. But normally, color balance, levels, blend modes, gradient overlays and a border is always nearly a must for me - just no real order in doing so


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## Flash Harry (Apr 28, 2009)

Well, as head photographer you should understand that all digital images need a degree of sharpening as the AA filter softens all images, its not just a case of good glass either. H


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## kalmkidd (May 7, 2009)

abraxas said:


> It matters. Try;
> 
> 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, 4, 7



agreed/


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## polymoog (May 10, 2009)

I usually (but not without exception) :

1. Open RAWs in Lightroom and adjust WB, Expousre, Highlight Recovery if necessary
2. Export images to psd and open in Photoshop
3. Crop
4. Levels
5. Other colour adjustments
6. Noise Reduction if needed
7. Sharpen (unsharp mask, settings altered as appropriate)
8. Resize
9. Clone if needed (if it's a simple removal I would rather do it on the smaller image which has less detail that you have to try to match, but half the time I do it on the full size image after all other PP - yes I know I need to get better at cloning ... :roll
10. Save as 100% quality jpeg

I would still maintain that crop is the first thing to do, because if you can't find a valid composition to work with, there is no point wasting any time on the pic with other adjustments ...


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## DeadPixel (May 11, 2009)

Honu said:


> I can't  remember where i found this list but I've been using it -
> 
> 
> Crop
> ...


Myself too not have certain place for noise reduction in my workflow, but i do it in my first parts of image editing (sometimes i re-apply it at the end if i want to) - usually it is:


Noise reduction
Retouch
Colour and light adjustments (as long as it is in separate layers and can be readjusted at any time, it doesn't make much sense to me when)
 If im happy with results, Merge retouch layers, then do *sharpness* or *unsharp mask* (whatever related to sharpening),
 And at the very end *crop *& *resize *(these two actions strongly goes only at the very end for me)
 
btw: very informative thread, im confused myself now


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## WhineAndDine (May 14, 2009)

why crop first?  wouldn't it be better to leave that till the end?


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## DeadPixel (May 14, 2009)

WhineAndDine said:


> why crop first?  wouldn't it be better to leave that till the end?



Totally agree and that is what i meant too... 
Though i remember the time - working with big files and weak pc. Photoshop was freezing so often and wasted lots of time, then i was cropping/resizing firstly just to save time, but for quality it is a minus, i agree
Probably some might have same problems and crop first just to work more smoothly


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## polymoog (May 15, 2009)

I would always crop first. As I said before, if I can't make a nice picture in terms of composition, what is the point of all the other adjustments? And you don't change the quality by cropping, you only alter the available part of the image you want to work on.


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## DeadPixel (May 15, 2009)

I personally crop at the end because i have phobia that i might need some detail or not sure if i'll like that way after im done with picture (probably lack of experience). Its ok to crop if only colour adjustments needs to be done with images + sharpness etc. and so on. But when need to spend hour or more for this photo (retouching or some other work, which requires much more time to spend with practilular photo/project) then is very pitty, when at the end i understand sometimes that i would rather have little more of image.

For that reason, i keep on the rule do not make any changes (at the start at least) which can not be undone. 

But thats of course depend on everyones habbits and experiences


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## abraxas (May 15, 2009)

I try to consider the destination/product I'm working for.  If it's down and dirty for the internet, documentation of some sort, or personal (family shot) I'll crop right off the bat.  Usually there's not too much processing involved with shots for my web site and I can just pick up the original again and do it over if I need to.

For fine art prints, I rarely ever crop at all.  I print in sizes that fit the ratio of my camera (typically 8x12, 12x18, 16x24 or 20x30) and get the composition to what I want before I shoot.  If I do need to have an 8x10, 11x14 or whatnot, I can crop online since my printer service provides a way to do that. I sell online so if a customer wants an off size they can crop their own.  

I've found if I crop first, and I want a different ratio later, that part of the photo is gone and reprocessing to get the same look never seems to work. So if I do want something off my standard, I crop the original processed image and save it as a separate image.


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