A3: Photoshop, ACR & Lightroom Workflow 3

3h15m in six parts with profiles.

After a significant amount of experimentation on files from many different cameras and photographic situations, I have developed a common workflow that is applicable across all current Adobe CC generation products and using the tools released with ACR 9.x. It is a workflow that is applicable to 99% of situations and not just speeds up overall processing, but enhances consistency as any subjectivity has been minimised to the highest possible degree - no more profiling, no more LAB/RGB cutoffs, no more individual channel corrections. Profiles developed by me and refined over tens of thousands of exposures are included, along with instructions to import them and set as defaults. The workflow only requires you to have exposure discipline at the time of capture, but rewards with smooth highlight rolloff for all cameras and a shadow toe with equally smooth transitions. The Lightroom portion of the workflow will get you a 95-99% result compared to ACR/PS, providing no retouching or major local adjustments are required - there are still some limitations in the software, but we’re getting there.

A3 sits as a standalone video that supersedes A1 and A2 unless you are using an earlier version of Photoshop (A1: CS3 or later; A2: CS5 or later), or would benefit from adjustment for individual images for the most precise color tuning (A1), the creation of custom profiles (A2) and curation/sorting workflow (A2).