I would like some opinions. Not nasty ones, please; those I can do without, and if you have opinions on politics, I’d rather not hear those, either. Actually, I would like some opinions on Post Processing. 
If you haven’t noticed, I have post processed (other than the watermark, of course) almost none of the photos posted to this blog. It’s not that I don’t have the programs or knowledge; I’m fairly adept at Photoshop, and I have GIMP and Lightroom on my Windows Start page. I went on an HDR binge before I started this blog, but I haven’t posted any of those in a while (I will, I will…). I just have a strong, ingrained, insensible aversion to post. I learned on film but never processed my own, and I carry that “make the first shot count” mentality over to digital. I would rather get the shot perfectly with my camera. I understand the correlation between film processing and digital processing, but I still have this nagging feeling in the pack of my head that when I perform post operations on my photos, I have somehow cheapened the end result.
This is where you, the wonderful person reading this post, come in. I’d like you to give me your opinion on operations in post. Do you adjust contrast? Bump colors? Crop this? Straighten that? Apply a filter?
I’d like to make it clear that I don’t think that others’ work is cheapened by their (often wonderful) post processing skills, I just have always had a slight aversion to it myself. Convince me otherwise?
Thanks,
Chris
Tell others:
June 5, 2013 at 21:41
From the earliest days of photography, photographs have been post processed. Check out Ansel Adams work and read up on his darkroom work. Its all about degree, not about whether, every shot needs sharpening, a little contrast etc. Its the nature of the beast always has been. Good luck.
June 6, 2013 at 10:55
I’ve never read about his darkroom work. I’ll get on that!
June 5, 2013 at 21:55
Ask yourself this, are you a photo journalist? If yes, then you shouldn’t be post processing. Do you consider yourself an artist? If yes, you should be post-processing. The truth is capture is only 1/2 of the final image. If you want to realize the full potential of your images, you MUST post-process. You should not consider it “cheating”. Your image sensor is inferior in may ways to your eyes. One way to look at post-processing is that you are outputting the image as you actually saw it without the limitations of the camera’s sensor.
June 6, 2013 at 10:58
Ah, thanks. I’ve heard many arguments both ways, but the strength always seems to fall behind those who say “edit.”