Post processing sequence.....

Hello All,
I was just wondering if there is a prefered order or sequence, when applying corrections to an image. For example, I usually crop a pic, then adjust lighting, contrast, ect. Then apply NR, then apply sharpening if needed. Does that order make sense? Is there a better sequence to follow? Does JPEG or Raw alter the sequence?
Thanks for any info you can give!
Jim

It's just my way of working, but I tend to export a "clean" image from my raw converter which has few edits and any NR and sharpening is turned off, and then I do everything else in Photoshop.
This way, I can make sure the order of things goes my way, which is very roughly: NR -> retouch -> overall image enhancement (contrast/color) -> detail enhancement -> effects - > sharpening, if any.

Generally, the point is not to aggravate any artifacts that might pop up as a result of heavy image editing, so you want to apply NR first and fix any small details before applying everything else, which may make it harder or impractical to fix afterward once you already have a bunch of layers.
Cropping is sometimes the first thing I do, sometimes I crop while editing, and sometimes it's the last step. It's often an aesthetic choice, and not a technical one, so there is no right way to go about it.

As K-P says, it's a personal choice, but I'm the opposite. I try to keep as much as possible within Lightroom, only making a tif and going to another editor if LR can't hack it. And since LR, or any RAW converter, is "parametric", the order in which you do things is entirely irrelevant because the actual changes to the image take place only in the seconds following your click on the Export button and they happen in the order decided by the designers.

Why not do all your work on the entire image and then crop afterwards, keeping a copy of the original in case you ever want to use a different crop - for a different aspect ratio for example...?

Its actually a good practice to do a rough crop of your images. You aren't cropping to a specific size or ratio but to get rid of extraneous bits that aren't really relevant to the image. This is even more important when the image has bright portions at the edges because they can fool the auto adjustment tools like Auto-Tone and Auto White Balance in Lightroom.

Try it for yourself and see...if you apply the auto tools to an image that has bright tones on the edges you will get a significantly different result if you crop away those portions if they aren't essential.

jack880 wrote in post #12288584
Why not do all your work on the entire image and then crop afterwards, keeping a copy of the original in case you ever want to use a different crop - for a different aspect ratio for example...?

PixelMagic wrote in post #12288629
Its actually a good practice to do a rough crop of your images. You aren't cropping to a specific size or ratio but to get rid of extraneous bits that aren't really relevant to the image. This is even more important when the image has bright portions at the edges because they can fool the auto adjustment tools like Auto-Tone and Auto White Balance in Lightroom.

Try it for yourself and see...if you apply the auto tools to an image that has bright tones on the edges you will get a significantly different result if you crop away those portions if they aren't essential.

Fair enough, I personally don't use any of the auto stuff. Prefer to do it all myself and use masks to apply the changes to only certain parts if I need to.

Jjwheels723 wrote in post #12286586
Hello All,
I was just wondering if there is a prefered order or sequence, when applying corrections to an image. For example, I usually crop a pic, then adjust lighting, contrast, ect. Then apply NR, then apply sharpening if needed. Does that order make sense? Is there a better sequence to follow?

A lot of software is set up to guide you through your work flow. For Example Lightroom and ACR both do. They will start you off with Color Temp and Tint.
Most often I don't have to touch those.
Next are the various exposure corrections. From there to Sharpening and Saturation, and then onto Noise Reduction and so on.
Cropping isn't always the last thing I do, but often it is just in case I want to crop it to different aspect ratios for various print sizes. Regardless, Before I crop I will save my work, as well as keep my original Raw file.

Jjwheels723 wrote in post #12286586
Does JPEG or Raw alter the sequence?
Thanks for any info you can give!
Jim

In some ways yes, Not necessarily the order in which you work, but what you can do as well as how much you can since you can't do all that you can with a Raw file to a jpeg.