This is a Good Thing™
Digital Image Workflow.
Perform these steps in order.
- Copy
- Crop
- Adjust Contrast & Brightness
- Adjust Colour Balance & Correction
- Clean Up
- Add any Special & Creative Effects
- Sharpen
This will optimize your image security (step 1), reduce working file sizes (step 2), scratch file efficiency (also step 2), and overall image quality. You can't effectively adjust balance until the brightness and contrast is correct. The take-away from this is Sharpen last. No exceptions.