Processing steps when processing raw pictures?

Like some (with the exception of the very speedy @CarVac!), I’m between about 5min to never done. :slight_smile: Importantly, I will usually have a series of images when I’m working that are all shot in very similar lighting conditions (either off-camera flash or at the same time of day/setting). This means that broad-strokes like exposure or overall color rendering can be adjusted on a representative image, and then easily copy/pasted onto any subsequent images (or batches of images).

This way the overall parameters can be pasted, and I can individually modify other parameters as desired. I find that from image-to-image I’m only usually adjusting a few small parameters once I get the first pass done (exposure tweaking mostly - maybe some color work if it’s a different complexion on a person).

The actual application of the adjustments is fixed in RT/dt, but for the most part I tend to:

  1. Exposure
  2. Highlight/Shadow compressions as needed
  3. Lightness/Contrast/Chromaticity adjustments to taste. (I find on my E-M5 the need to pull the lightness down a little bit).
  4. Noise Reduction (Impulse + chrominance noise - I often leave luminance noise alone).
  5. Color fiddling

Once I have something I like, I’ll bulk-apply as needed and usually only need to make minor (quick) adjustments to exposure/hightlight/shadows between shots.