Although I love to set my own processes, you can’t argue with a process someone else has set up that already does what you want. Hence my love for Photoshop Actions.

I came across a link today over at DesignM.ag for 20+ Photoshop Actions for Photo Editing; a couple more links within the article lead to another 60 Photoshop Actions for Photo Touch-Ups and Enhancements and another 30 Photoshop Actions for Touch Ups and Enhancements – Part 2.

Looks like some good actions in there, I’ll be sure to check some of them out!

Just received this tidbit in my email from the Digital Camera Magazine:

1. Rotate and crop: If you rotate and crop the image first, you’ll minimize the file size for subsequent edits and keep things speedy.
2. Levels: The Levels dialog will tell you if the image has a full tonal range or not. Adjust levels to give solid blacks, brilliant highlights and solve saturation problems.
3. Brightness: Don’t use the Brightness/Contrast command. Instead, move the midpoint slider in the Levels dialog or drag the image curve up or down.
4. Colour balance: If there’s still a colour problem after Levels adjustments, try the Variations dialog, Color Balance dialog or use the Set Gray Point eyedropper.
5. Sharpening: is best applied right at the end because it can produce edge effects and noise that the other processes might exaggerate.

Looks like I was doing a couple things wrong/out of order – I’ve been using the Brightness/Contrast command, as well as sharpening right away. Will have to try their tips and see what it changes!