it's subjective and really depends on the photograph. what's your vision? what's the intent of the photograph? is your intent to reflect the real world, or is it purely an art piece?


i will say that a good photographer should be able to, generally speaking, approach their subject, envision the final product, nail the shot, and have it fit that vision with very little post processing (i don't want to exclude it completely, because most of us shoot in RAW).


post processing is like table salt.. some days you create something great, but it just needs that extra something.. and on occasion, you create something that isn't very great, but use salt as a means of making it palatable.. other times, you know full well that you're creating something that's gonna require it later, and that your vision won't be possible without it (HDR). however, if you overload on salt all the time.. it simply isn't healthy. that's how i look at post processing.


that's one of the reasons i love lightroom so much.. it provides me with the RAW essentials, with some great tools that really help me make the most of my product, while still forcing me to shoot for awesome source material to start with. regular photoshop gives unlimited freedom with your photos, but is so time consuming in comparison that i really only use it for photos that really require it for my vision to be complete.