Noise and head swaps

[RSil]

I need to do head swaps on a family portrait. The image is very noisy. What's the right workflow? 

1. remove noise in 3 images needed for swaps

2. Swap now or bare bones sharpening now?

3. Sharpen for 20x30 canvas

Also I send my swaps retouchup.c om if that makes any difference.

Thanks for the help!

[Christina Keddie]

You do ALL your raw processing on all of your images first, before you bring anything into PS.  Noise removal is part of the raw processing.  There should be NO noise left in any of the images before you even bring them into PS to think about swapping.

So:

1. Raw processing on all three images first (WB, exposure, noise removal, etc.).

2. Head swaps.  (I guess in your case, send the three files to retouchup.)

3. Other PS edits on the final image.

4. Save the master PSD file (unflattened, uncropped, unresized).

5. Flatten the file, then crop and resize for the specific output size of your print or web display.

6. Sharpen for the output size.

7. Save this output JPG under a different file name.

8. Use the output JPG (post it online, send it to print), and then trash it.

[RSil]

Woah thanks for the in depth response!!

I guess the ppl at retouchup will think I'm nuts for sending a soft unsharpened image!

[Damien Symonds]

Come on Reva, you don't need to rely on those monkeys.  Give it a go yourself.