Photography Forum | Photoshop Basics - Help

I'm fairly new to digital photo editing. I've got Photoshop CS5 with a few other add ons.

Can anyone give me a rough idea in what order I should be editing pictures, for example Crop, Resize, adjust exposure/colour/brightness/contrast etc, unsharp mask, sharpen, noise removal etc etc?

I appreciate a lot depends on the quality of the starting image but let's assume it's a good clear sharp shot to start with.

By the time I'm finished resizing the image has lost a lot of its original quality. I'm doing something wrong I'm sure.

Try this...
http://www.jid.me.uk/workflow/Workflow2/index.html

I usually start by cropping, then I check for dust spots or imperfections with the Equalize filter. The I go on to the levels and sharpening. Resizing is the last thing I do

Tony

...or take a look at the thread entitled 'Post Editing' in the Photography Forum, which addresses the same topic and contains quite a lot of information that you may find useful.

Each to their own when it comes to editing as I do it differently from Tony. I first level the shot, correct the contrast, brightness, colour etc, check for dust spots, re-size and finish be sharpening the image.

Me too! I used to sharpen and then resize, but, in my experience, doing it the other way round seems to produce better results.

Forgive me if this sounds a bit thick but whats the best way to go about shapening pics? Seems that my pics tend to come out a bit soft after crop etc, usually noticable around the aircraft reg/any writing.

I've had a go at a few pics but they look a bit strange after (colours look odd or edges too jagged)

If you use Photoshop like I do, try using the Unsharp Mask (USM) settings of Amount: 50% Radius: 0.4 Threshold: 0
I tend to give it 2 rounds of USM, any more than that and jaggies will start to appear.

...and what's the best way to get rid of jaggies? I'm using PS Elements 10.

Jaggies should only appear if the image is over-sharpened in processing.

Sorry to be a pest, but at what magnification do you (i.e. personally) apply USM? I used to do it at 100%, but a number of my pics started to be rejected for being oversharpened, so I now increase the magnification to 200%. This, in turn, highlights more of the jaggies, which I then soften using the 'blur' tool.

i perform final sharpening on the image after downsizing for p/m (1024.1200 etc) you can then see the
image at 100% which is how the screeners see it (i guess) i use unsharp mask at amount 150-200
radius 0.3 threshold 3 one pass usually works for me .you can set up couple of actions to vary the amounts slightly then sharpening becomes a one click operation

As bluechalk has said, apply USM at 100%. But 150-200 radius for me is a little to strong but each to their own. It's all trial and error at first but you'll get there.

stu i think you may have misread my post i use radius of 0.3 the threshold of 3 seems to keep edges clean at least for me but like you say" different strokes"

Apologies