Somewhere Rusty, you posted the numbers to defog your images. I use it all the time but several tutorial later where I had to change the setting. I lost the numbers and the old grey matter has forgotten them. I can't find the post..could you please tell me them again. This time I am putting in my notebook

Suzi, I have these numbers from my notes. I dont know if they are the same as Rustys or not. Hope they help.

Defog - Amount: 20
Radius: 60
Threshold: 0

I love ya, Linda, thanks tons.

Yes, those are the same #s I have.
These were from a workflow video tutorial (portraits) on the "NoBS site" I have seen slightly different, but similar #s other places.

There was another, very interesting setting at the very end of this workflow routine; it was described as "making your image pop". His Portrait Workflow was as follows:
1. Defog (USM 20-60-0)
2. Selective Color: increase red (this was a Photoshop tutorial - I can approximate it in Elements w/Hue-Sat to decrease Cyan which will add a bit of red into skin tones)
3. Hue/Saturation Adjustment: set on Master; kick up saturation a bit ... 10 or 20, maybe as high as 30.
4. Eyes: use Dodge to make whites whiter; use Burn to darken where desired. Set on midtones in the toolbar; don't go overboard or it'll look screwy.
5. Skin: use Clone Stamp. Set toolbar mode to lighten to remove lines/blemishes; set to darken to remove highlights or shine.
6. Vignette: use burn tool. Set on highlights to rough in corners/edges; then change mode to midtones to complete burning in the vignette. For all the opacity is between 15 to 20.
7. Soften: on a new layer soften w/Gaussian blur -- not much -- then erase what is desired to be sharp.
8. Sharpen: Unsharp Mask set at 500-0.1-0 With radius (0.1 is as low as it will go) highlighted, use the up-arrow to change it, one click at a time. Watch the image; when it "pops" you're done. If it "pops" too much, either use the down-arrow to back off or reduce the amount a bit down from 500.
9. Noise - add just a bit ( 1 or no more than 2 - set on Gaussian) to put a bit of texture into the image.

This is the exact procedure I followed with my "Emily image" in my gallery. I converted from color to B&W after step 7 and before step 8.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty, that goes in my notebook for sure.

Suzi,
Your so welcome. So glad I could help you

Rusty,
Thank you for going to all the trouble to write that. I just printed it out.