INCORPORATE CORE SOFTWARE ENHANCEMENTS

Use this essential processing workflow as a template for standardising the quality of every image

1 APPLY A CAMERA PROFILE

A step that is often neglected in the photographer’s workflow is to select a camera profile in Camera Raw or Lightroom. While colour and exposure can be adjusted in these applications, to truly demonstrate the camera’s colour reproduction a unique profile needs to be applied.

2 APPLY AUTO LENS CORRECTIONS

Select a camera/ lens combination profile to be applied to reduce geometric distortions and edge vignetting. These provide a good starting point for further customisations and provide precise corrections influenced by manufacturer design knowledge – difficult to replicate manually.

3 ADJUST CHROMATIC ABERRATION CORRECTION

While coloured banding can be reduced automatically, don’t forget to manually tweak the correction for the subject position within the frame, and the level of detail around the frame edges. If the subject is central and edge detail is low, less correction may be needed.

4 SHARPEN FOR OUTPUT

Images intended for print require greater sharpening than those for screen, so select this in Lightroom from the Output dialog. This should be in addition to the manual sharpening applied in the Sharpen tab.

5 SET BLACK AND WHITE POINTS

In Lightroom or Camera Raw, the Blacks and Whites sliders can be used to define the brightest and darkest tones in the image. This will ensure maximum use of the dynamic range, while preventing clipping of highlights and shadows.

6 ADJUST NOISE LOCALLY

In low-light conditions, even the most advanced cameras will produce image noise. However, to reveal the greatest sharpness from your camera and lens, apply noise reduction to flat tones only, maintaining detail in the rest of the photo.