PP Order of operations

cmkultradome

Does it make a difference in the quality of the picture depending on the order you perform your post processing steps? I'm shooting sports pictures in RAW, most of which need some cropping. Should I crop first and then correct exposure or white balance mistakes, and make levels/curves adjustments? Or should I make all of my adjustments first and then crop last. Does it make a difference. I also usually have to perform some type of noise reduction, should I be doing this before or after the other adjustments. I know I read somewhere that sharpening should always be my last step, but I didn't know about the other steps. I use Canon DPP and also have access to Photoshop CS3 (limited knowledge). Thanks for any help.

Stephanie

pathfinder

I use Adobe RAW converter for my first step editing my RAW images. and I use the steps in the basic order they are arranged in the RAW converter.

I tend to crop late in my workflow, just before sharpening, but there are images where cropping earlier can be useful also. ( As Chris points out below, if there are large areas of the image that are going to be discarded when cropping, that could alter the S/H and color balance so crop first. But I prefer to minimize my cropping to the edges of my original frame if at all possible )

I tend to crop in PS, not in the RAW converter itself, although it can be done there as well. I just defer that decision until I have had a chance to look at the image for a while first.

I work right down through the sliders, basically in the order seen here

I use Noiseware as a plug in for Photoshop for noise reduction, and I tend to use it after curves in Photoshop and prior to any sharpening, other than the capture sharpening I do in ARC.

Richard

In most cases, it doesn't make much of a difference when you crop. Like PF, I use ACR for conversion and usually do the corrections in the order of the controls--white balance and exposure first followed by the rest of adjustments and capture sharpening last. This is the order recommended by people who really understand how the adjustments work. Then I move into PS for other corrections. I usually crop as the first step in PS, then use curves and make whatever local adjustments needed. You will get a more appropriate histogram if you get the pixels you are going to discard out of the way before you do your curves, but by the time I am doing the curves I rely more on my eye than the histogram. Nevertheless, I don't think any real harm is done if you crop as the last step, possibly as an afterthought.

TheMightyZog

Very interesting replies, but I would put forward the following ideas
a) crop first as some of what you get rid of may influence your curving, especially shadow and highlight points. Also if you do not know what you are going to do with the image in the way of composition, why bother correcting it in the first place!
b) every adjustment you make degrades the image - noise especially, so always remove noise first - I use Neat Image and then Focus Magic, so I have the best available set of pixels to then play with
c) always sharpen last - how much/what you do in sharpening depends on the final presentation of your work. You need to do it differently for prints, web and full screen viewing. So I wind up with a Master corrected image, which is then resized etc into one of the 3 above.
d) pay no attention to the logic above and do what comes naturally to you - the only really important order, I believe, is noise, focus, correct & finally sharpen.
Hope that helps a touch.

pathfinder

Come on Chris, tell me that you have never changed your mind about how to crop an image after looking at if for several days or hours:D

Good points you made!

arodney

cmkultradome wrote:

Does it make a difference in the quality of the picture depending on the order you perform your post processing steps?

Depending on the software, absolutely (like in Photoshop).

In Adobe products like Lightroom and ACR, no, it processes the metadata instructions in the preferable order when producing the rendered pixels.

There's a big difference between pixel editing and metadata (parametric) editing. In the later, smart software applies the processing steps in a preferred order.

cmkultradome

Thanks for the help Pathfinder, Richard, Chris, and Andrew. I've been doing a lot of hockey pictures and am usually cropping first since I definitely know what I don't want in the picture. I've been doing noise reduction 2nd to last (sharpening last), but I think I might try noise reduction first. Actually I think I'm going to perform a mini study since I take the pictures in RAW and try them a few different ways and compare the end products. Thanks again.

Stephanie