General workflow question: where to make artisitic edits

[Hopskotch]

I apologize in advance is this is covered elsewhere (I did try to look for it) but it's a very broad processing flow question. As general background, I'm in your RAW class now, and I do not yet know how to use Photoshop (just basic things like cropping and the healing tool). I've never used Lightroom. I have seen professional photographers (I stress photographers, not professional editors) use the Lightroom sliders that correspond to the sliders in ACR to make artistic adjustments to their photos. For example, they wanted a strong light/shadow contrast, or they wanted to emphasize certain colors using the saturation sliders.  My impression from what I've seen you teach is that you would recommend making artistic adjustments in Photoshop, after a clean edit is completed in ACR.  Is that impression correct?  Is it ever okay to make artistic choices within the sliders of ACR instead of waiting until Photoshop?  For example, if I know in advance that want very strong contrast between light and shadows (even if it means losing detail in the shadows), would it be okay to make this happen in RAW or do you still recommend making the clean edit in ACR first and then artistic adjustments in Photoshop?

[Damien Symonds]

1 hour ago, Hopskotch said:

Is it ever okay to make artistic choices within the sliders of ACR instead of waiting until Photoshop?  For example, if I know in advance that want very strong contrast between light and shadows (even if it means losing detail in the shadows), would it be okay to make this happen in RAW

Yes, but you have to be REALLY sure you're only doing good, not damage, to every part of the photo.

The reason we wait until Photoshop isn't because Photoshop is better at strong contrast, to use your example.  It's because you don't add strong contrast until after you've completely manipulated the photo so it's PERFECTLY lit.  Every inch of it, top to bottom, left to right.

If you add strong contrast to a photo that's not quite ready for it, disaster happens.  For example, a photo of three people ... two of them are well lit, but the third is standing in a tiny bit of shadow.  If you add the strong contrast before you've brightened that person to match the other two, he or she suddenly goes from being a bit too dark to a LOT too dark.

Hope this makes sense.

It'll make a LOT more sense once you've taken the Levels Class.

[Hopskotch]

Thanks for the explanation!  I do think this makes sense, but I look forward to learning more about Levels so I understand it in more depth.