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

[Nicole]

There have been plenty of discussions (including a weekly poll) on whether or not photoshopping a picture is cheating. This isn't one of them.

The question is pretty simple: In relation to pictures that you either print, show people, or show online (or show in any other way that I'm forgetting), are most of your shots post-processed or are they straight out of the camera?

If you do post-process, what is your most common thing to do to photos? Do you go all out post-processing or do you just do one or two simple adjustments (like cropping, sharpening, etc)?

If you don't post-process, is it because you shoot in jpg format and your camera does a good job of processing the photo for you? Is there any other reason (like no post-processing program)?

Either way, let's hear what you have to say about the pictures that you share.

[eternalhope]

As a serious hobbyist, I view photography as an art. I like to be able to use my photography skills without the luxury of adding 'touch ups'. With digital imaging software so easy to use these days, it is tempting at times to be just a bit 'slack' with the initial capture, but my love is in the technical and creative aspects of photography. So, like painting a picture or creating a sculpture, I like to put thought and care into producing my product. If I must post-process, I might adjust the brightness and contrast if I have taken photos in low-light without the flash or crop images slightly.
For me, it's more about enjoying the camera...not sitting infront of the computer fixing things up....that's more like work!!

[forever fallen]

I find post work tedious. Once in a great while I'll play with one,
and try to do something artsy. lol
But I prefer to get it right so I don't have to do
alot, or ideally, any postwork.
Cropping on occasion is about all I do.
I would however love to be able to do BW conversions in post.
fallen

[Arun]

I mostly shoot RAW and like to see what effect the different WB has on the overall image, cropping, levelling, brightness thats about it.

Cheers

[Pernod]

My workflow is pretty well refined...
Everything I shoot is done in raw. I load them onto the computer.
I rank every image from 1-5 using a slide show view, and straight away delete anything rated 1.
I then convert the raws for anything rated 3-5 and edit to my hearts content in a variety of programs.
Things rated 2 either get kept unconverted in case I want them one day, or I convert them straight to jpeg with no post processing.

So yep, most of my 'useful' shots get post processed.

[Pasq]

Originally Posted by Pernod

My workflow is pretty well refined...
Everything I shoot is done in raw. I load them onto the computer.
I rank every image from 1-5 using a slide show view, and straight away delete anything rated 1.
I then convert the raws for anything rated 3-5 and edit to my hearts content in a variety of programs.
Things rated 2 either get kept unconverted in case I want them one day, or I convert them straight to jpeg with no post processing.

So yep, most of my 'useful' shots get post processed.

weird, but i follow your procedure very closely. though i never thought of using the star system to help me eliminate the ones i don't want to keep. thanks for the great idea.

[Sistog]

post-process every pictures.. but a little pp.. just crop and straighten

[murfam]

I do some post work on virtually every shot that I use. Not a lot of it most of the time, a bit of cropping, perhaps levels, contrast and the like, as needed. I tend to be a bit obsessive about my finished images so I'm NEVER quite satisfied with what I have. When I'm shooting, I always frame more of the scene than I plan to use so that I can then crop down to what I actually want. Post processing has been an integral part of photography from the start and it is at the core of what I love about Digital.

[tattoodjay]

At the moment I do minimal post processing, perhaps cropping and minor adjustments and add a frame in Picnik, maybe when get Photshop on this computer things will change, time will tell

[joep]

I just recently got Photoshop Elements 6, Iam still learning how to use it.
Right now most of my photos are right out of the camera, except to crop or sharpen a pic.