Often Used Digital Imaging Workflow Techniques?

[Doug Dolde]

My favorite is Photokit by Pixelgenius. Lots of tools for burn and dodge, filters, sharpening (although I also have Photokit Sharpener), and a lot more. Makes an easy task out of what would take a lot more steps not to mention Photoshop mastery.

[Greg Miller]

I never use the history brush because the history goes away when you close the file. An alternative to the process described for "dust and scratches":

1) duplicate the base layer (you shoud do this anyway so you presever your original pixels)
2) Filter>Dust and Scratches
3) add a layer mask to the layer that was filtered
4) fill the layer mask with black (this causes the filter layer to disappear)
5) with the layer mask selected, select a brush, set your foreground to white, and paint over dust and scratches. I use a brush opacity betwen 30% & 50% and gradually build up the effect using multiple brish stokes but you can use 100% opacity and do it with 1 brush stroke. If you go to far, change your foregound color to balck and remove the effect. The layer mask is not changing actual pixels so you have unlimited ability to paint with white and black.

With this method the dust and scratch layer and it's mask always remains with the image, even after closing the file. You come back later and fix anything you may have missed (happens to me all the time). And you still have your original pixles in the background layer in case you really screw up.

I refrained from answering the poster's original questions becuase there's too much information to pass along in this thread. Buy one of the recommended books and come back with questions that you still have.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Dan, whether one agrees with your opinion or not, your reply had nothing to do with the original post put up by Michael.