From this google+ post of mine there was some great feedback and descriptions (which I’m documenting here for posterity):
Ray Trace
My basic workflow is this:
Film Simuilation (Polaroid 690 Warm --@ 37% mainly)
Local Contrast Enhancement
Sharpen (Deblur)
Fake Vignette centred on main focus of picture (using a new white layer set to ‘Overlay’ at about 33%)
Possibly very faint use of G_Mic’s vignette
Final Levels Check (usually only main and red channel (I have a real hatred of cold ‘blue-ish’ pics)
And,
Ian Hex
Very quick overview of my output sharpening workflow:
- Duplicate image
- Go to G’MIC > Testing > Garagecoder > Unquantize JPEG (reduce edge preservation to 0)
- To sharpen for a final image size of 900px wide, Image Scale down to 900*1.6667 using Sinc (Lanczos 3) interpolation
- Finally, Scale Image down to 900px wide using the same interrogator.
(5.) Small amount of Unsharp Mask if still needed.
I should add my own workflow description here as well.
If I’m working on a portrait or an image where I’ve already done a wavelet decompose for any reason, I’ll usually end up using the lowest (finest) wavelet scales duplicated over my (almost) complete image. I’ll use a combination of opacity on the layers as well as masks to adjust the results to taste.
Often, I’ll use the finest detail scale at 100% opacity, and the next largest scale at a reduced opacity (~30-60%) as well as possibly masked for edges as needed (I will mask this and all higher scales off of skin for instance).
If I need to increase the strength of a wavelet scale, I’ll sometimes duplicate it, then adjust opacity as needed.
I’d love to also hear from @Morgan_Hardwood, @rickscheibner, @designbybeck, or @paynekj! 