I've been experimenting with using the History Brush in Photoshop for post-process editing. Basically this methodology, not invented by me of course, involves "painting" adjustments onto a second layer, somewhat like dodging and burning, except with a lot more flexibility. For example, ACR adjustments can be painted in through a luminosity mask. Different brush modes can be used of course. I haven't experimented with whether this would work with SO nor have I found a way that I could "get back" to the original raw data, which might be interesting. One advantage is that the final image can be comprised of only two layers, which results in smaller file sizes; the Cathedral Rocks edit file size is just over 500MB, basically double the rendered size. My conventional, multi-layer approach would result in a file size of 2-3+ GB. The disadvantage to History Brush editing is that it is not possible to go back into the file and take up where you left off. With this method, you take up where you close the file. There is a work around in the History Log, but it would require essentially a re-creation of the original if tweaking is desired. Below the finished image, I have included a screen shot of the History panel and the steps I took.
If interested, note that it is important to get any desired channel masks (eg, sky, land, foreground, etc) saved beforehand so they are included in subsequent snapshots. Is this better than a more usual approach? Perhaps, if you want to make high contrast adjustments where luminosity masking results in halos or other artifacts. Boosting saturation clearly works well. Certainly it's good if you want to keep your file sizes down; lots of possible adjustments crammed into a small space! Why not just flatten? Anyway, it is fun to learn new things.
FWIW, the image was shot using a CP, about 4 PM, from Red Rock State Park in Sedona. Post here or PM me if you have any interest. Third image: SOOC. Fourth: LRC Basic panel from SOOC.
