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I'd actually appreciate a more in-depth article, even if it means playing a little favoritism with tools and sharing services. Not everybody can afford a copy of Photoshop, but there are many free tools that are "good enough" for most amateur photographers, or all-in-one applications like Picasa that cover from import, to editing, storing, and then sharing.
How about organization tips like how to organize your original photos versus the edited ones, complete photo albums that don't contain all those blurry shots, etc? This is the kind of info I was expecting when I read this headline and clicked the link.

Right now, my setup is a bit of a mess with Windows taking care of the import into an import folder, and then me manually copying the pictures I like to a new album folder, and then editing them with Picasa (which secretly stores the original unedited photo again in a subfolder) and then uploading them to where I want. I'd love some tips on how to get this streamlined where I have one directory that contains all my original photos by date, and one finalized folder that contains my photo albums edited and ready to view, share, or backup.

Edit: Didn't mean to sound whiny and complaining but after reading it over I think I did. =/ Thanks for the post, just wanted to provide some suggestions for a new article!

This post has been edited by eyhk: 19 January 2012 - 09:42 AM

It's been a while since I checked out Picassa but I believe you can assign "Star Ratings " to photos and do searches. These two functions can be used to easily streamline your process (it would eliminate all the moving files around and creating new folders). As you look through your photos give them either a 1 or 2 Star rating. 1 star means "looked at it, didn't like. 2 stars means pictures you like. Then to see just the pictures you like you merely have to search for photos with a "2 Star Rating". If you change your mind changing a pictures "like" or "dislike" status is merely a matter of changing it's rating. the pictures are all stored in one location you just control what you see by using the search function.

This list is incomplete. Here is one way of approaching the challenge (assumes starting with a raw image):

1. correct for lens distortion (wide angle lenses, etc.)
2. stitch panoramas (optional ...)
3. crop
4. reduce noise
5. retouch
6. adj B&W: contrast, brightness, levels, etc.
7. adj colors: hue, saturation, etc.
8. mask (dodge, burn, all your fancy post stuff goes here)
9. HDR (optional ...)
x. resize

Once you're through playing, sharpen the picture, convert it to something you can share, and pat yourself on the back.