Workflow

I recently purchased Lightroom, PK Sharpener, and Noiseware and now I am looking for a good workflow to get all of them working in the way that they should (with Photoshop CS4). I believe that many of you have the same (or at least most) of these same programs in your workflow so I thought this would be a good place to ask. I also think that most books would not talk about the use of these programs together... maybe LR and PS together, but not all of them since they are produced by different companies.

Let's assume that the picture is taken in RAW format. Below is my closest guess but I'm not sure if it is correct. Please advise.

1. Import photo to Lightroom from card reader
2. Export to PS/ACR... adjust color temp and exposure in ACR
3. Run Noiseware if necessary in PS
4. Capture sharpen with PK in PS
5. Re-import to Lightroom
6. Make color and tonal changes in LR
7. Export to PS
8. Creative sharpening if neccesary with PK in PS
9. Save master file in PS
10. Flatten Image in PS
11. Softproof based on ICC profile of output (make color/tonal changes as necessary)in PS
12. Resize in PS
13. Output sharpening with PK in PS
14. Save final output file in PS

Also, would you keep it in 16-bit and prophotoRGB until step 10 and then move it to sRGB and 8-bit (assuming that is what your printer requires) at that point.

Am I close? So many programs now in my workflow. I like each one, but getting the order right for optimal results might give me a headache. Thanks in advance for your help on this.

Nate

I'm wondering why LR is even in the equation if you simply use it to import the images (which can be accomplished with PS Bridge), then immediately export to PS/ACR, then re-import again to LR to make color and tonal changes (which can both be easily accomplished with much more user control in PS), and then re-export yet again to PS.

Seems to me that eliminating LR from your workflow would greatly simplify and hasten your task.

Drop #2 ... stay in LR. In fact, try not to leave LR until you get to step 8 (unless you really have to use Noiseware). Down the road, you'll really appreciate having a history of your edits preserved within LR.

PK sharpen functionality is built into LR now ... so the PS "capture" step isn't necessary.

I agree with Jesse on this. I use all three programs (well, NoiseNinja) and I do everything I can in Lightroom before going to PS. I hardly use the noise control anymore as my camera is good in the noise department and most I can eliminate in LR if necessary. Some of my older images I run through NN.

I do continue to output sharpen in PS however. I know that PK is behind the sharpening algorithms in LR but I often mask out sharpening in areas I don't want it.

@ Jesse, do you know if it has been tweeked for LR to handle "edge" free areas like sky
and water?

I see why you might want to take it out to handle the noise before doing color work in LR but I don't think its all that necessary.

I also do as much as possible in LR. Often, that's all I need. But for bad noise or to add creative sharpening, I'll export to PS to use PK and/or Noiseware. When needed, I prefer the results from Noiseware and PK over the LR noise and sharpening controls. I let LR apply the default sharpening in place of PK capture sharpening. I usually minimize the LR noise adjustments and run the image through noiseware almost first thing after exporting to PS. I still find the use of masks in PS easier than LRs masked effects, so most images that need a blend or more than basic adjustments find their way to PS. I also like some of the PK Color adjustments. But all of that is after getting the most from the image in LR.

Okay, so this is what I am taking from the discussion above (and I should have noted that I am assuming that the image needs noise reduction, but understanding that most do not need that). Import to LR and use LR for everything I can (do I actually need to run a sharpen program in LR or does LR automatically run "capture sharpening" on every image that is imported?). Then, export to PS for any neccesary noise reduction, creative/output sharpening, etc. I like that workflow much better as there is not so much back and forth. Thanks for the input.

Nate