In Adobe Camera Raw, you can make better contrast adjustments if you pull back the Saturation to -100. Removing the color allows you to concentrate on the tonal relationships in the image. After getting a very nice-looking grayscale image, bring the Saturation back in.

If you want to see how an adjustment layer will look at different opacities, apply a gradient with distinct steps on the layer mask. You can then compare varying percentages of strength, and when you are finished, clear the mask and set the adjustment layer opacity to the strength you liked the best. This also works well for fine-tuning composites.

When soft proofing an image, it’s best to use a black background to surround both your working file and your reference image. In Photoshop, the only way to do this is to change the color of your desktop to black, and use the standard window mode to position your work and reference images side by side.

If you want to make a test print of an image to check color, sharpness etc. it’s often best to do it at full size. Instead of printing a reduced size version of the entire image, find an area that represents the critical elements of the picture, and crop the image to just that area to make your test print.

Here’s a cool Photoshop trick I learned from Jeff Schewe, for increasing contrast only in the midtones of an image. This adjustment really makes images POP!

1. Duplicate your main image layer.
2. Apply a Filter > Other > High Pass. Try starting with a radius of around 40.
3. Double click the layer to open the Layer Styles box. At the bottom of the first screen, look for the “Blend If…” sliders. For “This Layer”, move the black point to around 70, and the white point to around 200. Don’t change the settings for the Underlying Layer. Click OK to apply the layer style.
4. Adjust the opacity of the layer to taste.

You can fine tune this effect by adjusting the High Pass radius, the Blend If points, and the layer opacity.

As soon as you have copied image files onto your computer and made a backup, it’s best to immediately apply a standard metadata template to all your files. (You may also be able to do this during the image ingestion process, depending on your software.)

The minimum metadata you need to add right away:

1. Copyright Status
2. Creator and Author
3. Contact Information
4. At least ONE KEYWORD

Applying keywords early in the workflow will make it much easier for you to find and sort files later in the process.

I currently use Bridge (File Info) to apply metadata, and I have templates saved for different years.

I maintain a minimum of 3 copies of all my image files:

1. Daily – every night I run a script to synchronize my master working library with a mirrored network backup.

2. Weekly – every week my network backup is automatically synchronized to an additional hard drive.

3. Permanent Archives – periodically I burn DVDs for permanent archival (offsite is ideal).

Once you have the right hardware and software in place, autmating your backups is easy.

I use a Buffalo LinkStation NAS (Network Attached Storage) for my primary backup. I use ChronoSync on the Mac to synchronize my master working library. A second drive is connected to the NAS via USB, and the drive is set up to make updated backups of itself every week.

It can be overwhelming to begin sorting through a day’s shoot, which may contain thousands of image files.

To make it easier, start ranking your images early in the workflow, beginning with 1 star for images that pass your basic requirements. Then filter your previews to only show 1-star images, and move on to assigning 2 stars, and so on. You will find that as you work your way toward 4 and 5 stars, you have much fewer images to deal with. This will dramatically cut your time selecting photos to be taken through final processing.

In my workflow, images that make it to 4 stars will be processed for printing or web. 5 star images are those that have made it into my portfolios.

I recommend that you don’t use Lightroom to manage your entire master image library until version 1 is released.

For now, import copies of raw or DNG files into Lightroom temporarily, Referencing the Files in Place. Use the Develop module and export as new files, or use the Web or Print modules for specific tasks. Then remove the files from the Lightroom Library.

Lightroom’s file handling and database architecture is still changing in these beta versions, which means that the structure of the Library could change with Version 1 and render unusable any imports you had done previously. It remains to be seen how Lightroom 1 will handle conversion of the databases from beta versions.

You can load multiple images into Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) from Bridge. Simply shift-select a range of images and do one of the following:

1. Press Cmd+O (Ctrl+O) to open the files into ACR being hosted by Photoshop.

2. Press Cmd+R (Ctrl+R) to open the files into ACR being hosted by Bridge.

Once in ACR, you can select individual images from the filmstrip to apply adjustments or change settings for multiple images. You can synchronize adjustments between files.

When you’re done making any adjustments to the raw image settings, press Cmd+A or Ctrl+A to select all the files in the filmstrip, or shift-select specific images to be batch processed.

At the bottom right of the ACR window, click one of the following buttons:

1. Click Save… to convert the raw files and save as a different format, such as DNG or PSD, without opening the files.

2. Click Open to convert the raw files and open them into Photoshop.

3. Click Done to apply all the changes you made to image settings without converting or opening the images.

Picking the correct Rendering Intent for soft proofing and printing isn’t difficult if you remember these two points:

1. If you care most about maintaining the color relationships in the picture, use Perceptual.

2. If you care most about maintaining the tonal relationships (dark-light), use Relative Colorimetric.

Important Note: if you are using custom printer profiles, you should use separate profiles for Perceptual and Relative Colorimetric rendering intents.

Whether you’re using built-in sharpening tools or third-party sharpening solutions, you will get the best quality if you sharpen in several lesser amounts than if you do the full sharpening in one operation.

Try stacking layers of different sharpening effects for different areas of the images and adjusting transparency and layer blending modes to get perfect sharpening.