photomac

OK, I think I'm beginning to understand all this. My goal is to start with either a RAW, JPG or TIFF file and end up with an image to put into my Photoshop Elements program suitable for viewing on a 25" monitor. I save the original file in My Photos, so can always go back to it if I need to make a print of any size (which won't be very often). May I ask a favor of you? Would you give me step-by-step instructions, in the proper order, to do this? I would be forever grateful!! Thank you ! Photomac

Sure thing... The "before" image is a camera-produced jpeg; not cropped; resized to 6"x4"; dpi 180; resampled Lanczos 3 non seperable; exported. The "tweaked" image was (in this order) 1. Resized to 6"x4"; cropped "custom ratio" to 6"x4" / 180 dpi 2. Horizon straightened 3. Selected (shadow side of RV) / refined / lightened. 4. Selected (shrubbery on left) / lightened. 5. Exported at 6"x 4", Lanczos 3 non-separable. For what it's worth, my "normal" routine is to: import image; crop to desired shape; do any adjustments necessary; sharpen (I've used both the built in sharpening and NIK plugin); export at 2550 px either wide or high depending on photo orientation; Lanczos 3 non-separable, to a "finals" folder in My Pictures. I also keep all full size RAW & JPG files in another folder. From there I import the "finals" into Photoshop Elements 12. Hope all this helps! And THANKS!! IMG_7191_(2);_4x6_tweaked.afphoto IMG_7191-before;_resized_to_4x6.afphoto

Photos are sharp after importing them into AP, and remains so for a few adjustments, then they start degrading with further adjustments. By the time I've made a dozen or so, the image looks terrible. I've tried sharpening and not sharpening before making adjustments, to no avail. Sharpening at the end does not bring the image back to its original look. I've used AP for a year now, and never had this problem until a couple of months ago. I thought maybe it started when I upgraded to version 1.9, so I went back to 1.8.5; the problem exists there as well. As per some suggestions in the forums, I've tried doing my editing at 100%, but I don't see any improvement; plus the image is 3 times larger than my monitor which drives me nuts! (imported images have always come in around 30%, and I've processed them with no problems before this issue started). I shoot Canon RAW & JPG, and I'm scanning thousands of negatives. The sharpness problem affects all of them. I'm hoping you can help me; I sure don't want to go back to Adobe PhotoShop after they screwed me out of PS6 after paying $650 for it... but that's another story...