Here’s a quick summary of some of the things I’m doing in my image processing to speed things up and get the results I want.  This is based on a Lightroom 3 or ACR 6 workflow, although the plug-in portion is more generic.

-  Import images via Lightroom 3 and as part of that, apply a metadata template that’s oriented to the year.  This automatically fills in contact info for me, as well as the year in the copyright field

- I let LR3 use my default image editing parameters, which override the standard values in the following way:

–  I use color profiles generated by the X-Rite Color Checker Passport (I like the way they look plus they give all of my cameras, independent of brand, the same look and starting point).

–  For my infrared D300, I use a special infrared color profile that re-centers the white balance range so that the color temperature range is centered plus a override the white balance setting to a custom one based on normal daylight.  This gets me better results than what the camera can do by itself or that LR can do

– Sharpening gets altered to an intensity of 40, a radius of 0.8,  a detail setting of 35, and masking value of 0.  This is a bit stronger than the default value and renders fine detail better.  It’s best for landscapes and other subjects that have lots of detail and are shot at low ISO values.  If I did predominantly portraits or higher ISO work, I’d use something like 35, 1.2, 25, 50.  That accentuates shapes more than texture and minimizes noise in areas of the image lacking detail.

–  I enable lens correction so that distortion and light fall-off are automatically fixed for lenses that are supported in Lightroom (which is pretty much every lens I use these days).

– For certain cameras, I alter the default value for exposure according based on a value called the “baseline exposure”.  Not getting into the intricate details (which would be a separate article), recent bodies have a value of zero, but older ones vary.  The D3, D300 and D700 all have a baseline exposure value of +0.5, which means I dial-in a default setting of -0.5.  The D3X is +0.25, so it gets -0.25, but my D3s is zero, so nothing is altered.  If you want to do the same, convert a NEF to a DNG format and then view the DNG in something like Photome and look for the Baseline Exposure value.  I’ve found this yields a better starting point, but your mileage may vary.

That’s it for things that happen during importation.  It may sound like a lot, but since I have my defaults set that way, I just import and it all happens automatically.  Very nice.

After keywording (a different topic) and going through images and determining which ones are keepers, I edit those in LR3 (both global and local adjustments) and make liberal use of its great syncing features to copy settings from one file to others. I’ll then process a subset of them in Photoshop CS5.  Sometimes that will be for specific features I find helpful in Photoshop (like content aware retouching, exposure blending, pano stitching, …lots of things) and sometimes it’s because I want to use a plug-in.  Some of my favorite plug-ins these days are the following:

-  Nik Color Efex Pro 4.  I especially like the tonal contrast and detail extractor functions, but I also like glamour glow, dark contrast, sunshine, and classical soft focus.

-  Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.  It’s the best way to convert images to black and white that I’ve found.

-  Nik Viveza 2.  Sometimes I’ll do local adjustments in LR3 or Photoshop and sometimes I’ll use Viveza.  All work well – it just depends on what I’m trying to do and what mood I’m in.

-  Once in a blue moon, I’ll use OnOne’s Focal Point to blur out a background slightly if the bokeh is a bit ugly.  Again, I don’t do this often.

-  Also on an infrequent basis, I’ll use Topaz Adjust 4 for more graphic looking images or Alien Skin Exposure if I want an image that resembles a specific film.  Again, those are fairly infrequent things and Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2 also do film emulation well.

In almost every case, when I initially go into Photoshop from Lightroom, I’ll open the file as a Smart Object.  This means that not only are all my plug-in settings (and many common Photoshop edits) non-destructive and reversible later, but I can even edit the original raw settings later if I want.  That can be handy for certain plug-ins, and it’s also a good way of taking advantage of technological improvements in raw processing over time.  I never use those plug-ins from Lightroom because it eliminates the option of updating settings later.  Since I sometimes change my mind on how I want an image to look, and this makes future changes easy.

That’s about it for a top-level summary.  I hope it helps in your photography!