Weekly Poll: Are most of your pictures post-processed or straight out of camera?

[Taallyn]

I shot in RAW so I pretty much have to process to a certain degree. Most of my processing though is adjusting exposures, contrast, saturation, alignment, cropping and sharpening. I've just started to experiment with more involved post processing like selective coloring or Amazing Circles. However, I have not yet started taking pictures with the sole intent to process them in a certain style.

[jdepould]

I almost always shoot raw, which requires post-processing. The entire point of an SLR is to provide precise control over every aspect of the image-making process, that includes post.

[velvet4269]

I'm about 50/50 now ... but more and more of my pictures are getting some bit of post-processing - even if it's something as simple as a crop, or removal of an errant branch. More and more, I'm shooting in RAW, and those require a bit of post.

[mseigafuse]

I am still learning and when I do get shots I don't need to crop, rotate, etc... I am thrilled. I hope to do much less post processing as my skills improve.

Mike

[shootoften]

It's just my opinion, but I feel "every digital image" can benefit from at least a little post work, even if just a simple contrast or levels adjustment and some sharpening. I shoot Raw 99% of the time so post is a necessity on those, but even when I shoot in JEPG, the images can stand to be tweaked a bit. On the other hand though, I may just be too darn fussy!

[RussHeath]

I shoot RAW, convert to JPEG, and tweak from there. I definitely think that PP and work with the camera are distincly different skill sets, each very important to photography. While I enjoy shooting more than editing, a photo in the camera is only a starting point. You always want the best starting point possible, but it seems a waste not to adjust contrast, sharpness, and color -- if you don't do these in post then you're really just letting the camera make these decisions for you. IMHO.

[zannster]

SOOC. Occasionally I'll crop, if there's a real good reason. Otherwise, all I do is reduce size and then post online. Most of my pictures serve as a record. We don't have any family in this area, and many of the pics I take are largely for the grandparents. I've sort of developed an attitude about post processing. LOL I understand manipulating a picture as an artwork (and some of them are fantastic), but I don't think that every picture needs to be art in that way. I like seeing the scene in the photo as close as possible to the way it actually looked. I think the effort should be to produce a photo that resembles reality with the camera rather than manipulate it afterwards.

[filemanager]

Most of my shots are PP, but, my best ones are straight out of the camera, as they (miraculously. lol) didn't need any 'fixing'!

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by zannster

SOOC. Occasionally I'll crop, if there's a real good reason. Otherwise, all I do is reduce size and then post online. Most of my pictures serve as a record. We don't have any family in this area, and many of the pics I take are largely for the grandparents. I've sort of developed an attitude about post processing. LOL I understand manipulating a picture as an artwork (and some of them are fantastic), but I don't think that every picture needs to be art in that way. I like seeing the scene in the photo as close as possible to the way it actually looked. I think the effort should be to produce a photo that resembles reality with the camera rather than manipulate it afterwards.

The thing is, back in the film days it was impossible to avoid making processing decisions that affected the final outcome. It's just that most people were used to having a lab tech make all the decisions for them. The vast majority of stuff people do in post is the same stuff they did in the wet darkroom.

[Boogedy]

For me, Photoshop is almost as fun as taking the pictures. I PP pretty much everything and I love being able to "save" what looks like a throwaway shot at first glance. Most commonly I crop, adjust levels, add contrast, play with the saturation and add my border and logo.