Quote Originally Posted by tirediron View Post
You sir, are a man after my own heart! I hear of people spending hours in post on one image, and then think, "Hmmm, I only spent a minute or two on that one... what am I doing wrong?" The answer is nothing; they spent 1/125 of a second composing and exposing the image, and an hour in post. I spent ten minutes setting up the shot and two minutes in post. Mebbe it's just me, but I like that math!
That is the simplistic view. No serious pros spens hours on one image in post processing, for the simple reason that time is money. Workflow and the speed of workflow is important.

On the other hand, a lot of photographers who do little postprocessing have a poor eye and don't see the weaknesses in the technology or their work.
Few shots produce the colour and detail that was present in the scene when you looked at it. Postprocessing can also bring detail out of the close to pitch dark, depending on the ISO used.

Setting up the shot is also not always possible. Try setting up a shot of a wild animal on the move. At dawn the light changes so fast that even shots taken within a few minutes are totally different in the quality and colour of the lighting.

So basically any serious pro does postprocessing and with a good eye recognizes what needs to be done and what is not necessary. It is as much an integral part of photography as work in the darkroom.

Tegan