A photography question.

af_thefragile

Lately i've been finding myself post processing my images more and more to the point i stopped paying much attention to exposure of the original image itself with the thought that i'll fix it in photoshop or something.

So here's my question. What's more important to you and how do you do it?
Do you try to get the original shot perfect with the right exposure, lightning and composition before you put in photoshop for minimal post processing. Or do you just tend to get the image in RAW and then fix all the bits in photoshop?

For me the most important aspect i focus on while taking pictures is composition. I usually shoot in situations i can't do much about the lightning like outdoors and the colors always come out a little pale in the original pics so i end up processing the pics a fair bit enhancing contrast and saturation, fixing exposure, highlights, shadows and all. Also crop my pics a little cuz i prefer the wider 1:1.6 golden ratio aspect mostly than the normal (4:6 is it?) aspect.

Paulw

Personally, I prefer as little processing as possible.

I always try to get the focus and exposure correct. I don't mind minimal adjustments of exposure, white balance, crop, straighten, etc, but I don't want to spend long trying to "fix" an image that could have been shot correctly.

For me, I find that Lightroom helps me to get as much done in as little time as possible.

Tactical

For products I find that as much time getting it right in camera is infinately better than trying to get it right in post processing.

However in very fluid situations e.g. a fire scene, emergency scene you tend to shoot first and process afterwards (within reason).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it depends on the situation and the required end result. Even film underwent processing in the lab, it was just more of a black art to those not developing for themselves.

kjt

When I'm taking a shot I will have an end image already in my head so's to speak. So for some shots I know I'm going to process the crap out of the shot but with that in mind I'm going to take the photo a certain way when there, so the processing will be easier when I get home.

I always try do as much as I can at the shoot and minimal later (even if it's planned to be heavily processed shot)

SBPhoto

I totally agree with Paul's reply, I always try and get the exposure right where i can even to the point of using a Hand meter (Especially at Weddings) You get the best quality when you have to do the least amount of processing.

CabanSail

I think it's best practice to get the image as correct in the camera as you can get it to suit your workflow. This does not mean that the image will come out of the camera ready to print but rather it is shot with the full workflow in mind.

eg. This can mean purposely overexposing the image so that the shadow detail will be preserved & knowing that the highlights will be OK in the RAW file.

Fionn

quick shots can sometimes need more processing than deliberate shots but as has been said, if you have to go through 1000 photographs it makes sense to have a minimal amount of processing to do!
sometimes it doesn't work out the way you intended like for instance shooting in bright light with a high ISO mistakenly selected, or a incorrect white balance etc, all these are correctable in post processing but a little bit of planning before hand will save a bit of your lifetime for other pursuits

Nisio

I used to spend a lot of time in pp but I'm trying to move away and get things right "first time", I might take a pic a few times and review it each itteration on the LCD/histogram until I'm happy, get home and delete all but the last version and do minimal processing on that. I think lifes too short to spend it straightening horizons or fixing stuff that could have been done in field easily.