I shoot Camera Raw and typically follow the ACR filter from start to finish:
- White Balance - Auto and then adjust as needed.
- Exposure, Contrast, Highlights...Clarity, etc. - Auto and adjust as needed.
- Tone Curve - I prefer the Auto feature in PS.
- Sharpening - A great tool. Google how to use it especially the Masking.
- Saturation - Great to use particularly in conjunction with the Targeted Adjustment Tool.
- Split Toning - Don't generally use this.
- Lens Correction - Generally a must because it corrects my cheap lenses.
- Fx - I try to avoid dehaze because I think that it adds noise.
- Camera Calibration - I just leave it set at current.
If I am doing a landscape I will use the Gradient Filter. It can bring life back to dull skies.
- Back in Photoshop Ctrl J to create a copy of the image in a new layer before each adjustment:
- Curves - Auto does a great job.
- Image - Auto Tone, Auto Contrast are very good. Still undecided on Auto Colour.
- Dodge & Burn tools are good for selectively enhancing areas.
- Maybe additional sharpening. Check for dust bunnies and use the Spot Healing brush tool. Anything that needs tobe taken out of the picture use the Clone Stamp.
- Check for noise. I really like the free Dfine2 to look after this. Topaz DeNoise is also pretty good.
- Save as a high quality TIF. Look at it again in the morning.
That's it.