I know some very talented photographers, and some of them spend hours pouring through images on their Macs trying to weed out the best one. And once they find it, they tweak it for hours until everything is just right. But what they’re creating is not a true representation of what actually happened, it’s an idealized version of what could technically never be. They’re swapping out the sky for one that’s more appealing, or putting on arbitrary filters to sharpen up problems that could’ve been solved in the field. I look at it almost like cheating; like you should’ve taken the time to do things right from the start instead of manipulating the picture to within an inch of its life just to make it print worthy.Don’t get me wrong, I do use Photoshop, I just use it differently. I’ll use it to adjust a few levels if things are off a touch, to erase a dust spot on the lens, or an errant leaf that I didn’t catch during the shoot. But I never spend more than 10-20 minutes editing any one picture, because if I do that, then I didn’t do my job when I had the chance. I’m taking the “easy” way out.
That’s not how I roll.
I must agree with Whipps' entire article. Too many people think they can take okay photos and turn them into something great -- it's just not that simple. All the work of photography should go into taking the shot, not the post-processing. The only exception to this would be if you are doing an HDR through Photomatix or another processing program, which does take some time. Other than that, start thinking about the photo before you take it and stop wasting hours on it afterwards.
Just appreciate the photo for what it is, not what you can make it.