Calling for technical and artistic help

[vafa]

Is there any typical post-processing course of action after uploading the photos?
I always use some cropping, contrast enhancement, and hue correction (if needed), but I think to get a perfect-processed photo more is needed. Your artful experiences and technical comments will be helpful for me and the others.
vafa

[Scottes]

I genrally touch up exposure and saturation in Capture1 if needed, but once in PS I do very little except resize, profile, and some sharpening.

If you take the picture correctly you'd only sharpen, and just about always touch up contrast. I rarely take it perfectly, so I usually do a little bit of something, but that could easily be due to the fact that my monitor isn't calibrated so it looks off once I see it on the PC.

Nah, I probably screw up a bit. Usually though it's the original focus or composition I screw up.

[Motorsports Photo]

My easy steps are:

resize/crop
Adjust levels
apply unsharp masking
send to the printer.

Depending on if you have calibration of your monitor the colors will change between the screen and the printer. Be careful with color adjustments. When I have mesed with it my output was worse.

Of course others have MUCH more complicated maneuvers in their workflow.

-Pete

[BigRed450]

Try this

For 10D:

Crop: (do not set the dpi for crop tool)
USM: A-125 R- 1.5 T- 1.0
Edit>Fade> choose Luminosity
Levels: (bring left slider toward the right til it touches the histogram. bring right slider left until it touches the histogram, adjust center slider for proper brightness)
Contrast: +5
Saturation: +20

For 300D:

Same as above but change
Contrast: +2
Saturation: +10

[Motorsports Photo]

From everything I have heard and read you always do USM LAST.

-Pete

[BigRed450]

The USM can be set as the last step in this method if you wish, however the mentioned rule only applies to resampling/resizing because resampling alters the pixel arrangement which in turn affects sharpness.

Only Extreme contrast changes will affect the transition areas between light and dark areas which can affect the ability of the USM to enhance fine detail (because that fine detail will have been lost with the contrast boost), however in this method there is a very minor change in contrast.

Levels,and saturation merely change the color and tone/density of the pixels.

In my method I prefer to see how the color and tone effects the sharpened image....

I found no difference in the order in which USM is carried out "in this method" by print quality testing patches from the equivalent of 44"x 29".
enlargements.

This is of course, only my preference.

[Motorsports Photo]

Thanks for the extra details. I'll have to try your method and see how it works for me.

-Pete