Question from a noob

[dcclark]

I typically have the following process:

1. Take photos.
2. Trash those which are not interesting / strong enough to survive without post-processing
3. Apply post-processing as necessary to the remainder.

The idea is: a photo needs to stand on its own. It needs to be strong enough, well-composed, and interesting in its own right. But post-processing is usually necessary to make a photo look "natural" to our eyes -- so my photos (which survive step #2!) are usually post-processed at least a moderate amount.

But -- get to the point where your photos feel strong enough that you don't need post-processing first, and then learn what you can do to them in postprocessing to help "bump" the photos up another notch.

[Jim Bryant]

Being a photojournalist............all my images come straight from the camera, in Photoshop we (journalist) are only allowed to fix contrast in either curves or levels (personally I like levels) tone the photos ( fix color and boost the color saturation to a point) and sharpen. We cannot manipulate, take away or add anything to the photograph that wasn't there, with exception of using the clone tool or band aid tool.What you see is what you get. I have known of a few photojournalist who worked for major newspapers that have been fired for building photos in levels and over saturating colors, so when you plan to get a picture published in either a magazine or newspaper, make sure it's created in the camera, not the eye of the beholder.
But there's always exceptions to this rule, according to advertising agencies as well as art publications.

[wdogg40]

What a compelling question. I for one, use one form of pp for all my pictures that I display. As an amatuer and still learning I use photoshop as a crutch to make up for the things I am still learning about. Of course I would like to be able to capture the image as I see it but that doesn't always work.

I also use photoshop for dramatic effects. I often will have a picture and save different variations with different effects. The one trap I am trying not to fall into is just applying effects or actions to photos without experimating more.

Basically as I develop more into a better photographer I hope to only use photoshop to apply effects as an entertainment option and not to use effects to mask the fact that I didn't capture the colors or sharpness I wanted to out of the camera.

Hope that rambling helps and makes sense.