I don't go through all of that....but for some I go through a lot....I always crop with windows and sometimes adjust the sharpness.....then go to adobe......to brighten up the pic...you can not do that with windows...it just makes the whole pic bright...looks bad....adobe just does the background mostly....then there are several other things you can do to the pic....and sometimes do the sharpness....if it went just a little to far...go back to windows....there you can add or delete on the sharpnessMy hub opens up a pic that’s 600 or less pixels (no less than 485), in Adobe, copies them (usually 72 or 96 pixels), opens a blank Window and changes it to like 6000 pixels, then enlarges them by 33%, then copies and pastes at 72 pixels, then shrinks it down to 800,,,the smaller pictures have a tendency to limit control over all the plug-ins, that’s when he has to go to separate areas of the picture and use the smart blur, each section has to be isolated or you’ll blur the detail, he’s just looking to remove the pixelization, not and detail,,,but even through that process some pix are so bad they can’t be helped. Which really sucks cause they’re the ones that have unique content. The things we do for our hobbies,,,my hubs spent two or three hours on a major revamp, constructing a text, and be one click away from saving it,,,then all of a sudden I hear a scream like someone just killed a family member, only to find out he got a message “Adobe has experienced a fatal error and is closing”,,,and just like that, everything’s gone,,,sheesh!
you are right it seems the best pics are hard to fix....have worked on some...gave up...come back a few days later and tried again.....I have a bunch of pics that are one of a kind...and most would never know...….and I find a lot of the time.....the best pic is in the background of another pic....I have a couple of those I did a while back and you see them everywhere now
odd I will work on these pics...some quite a bit....and yet others just post as is!