What does Photographers edit in their work?


I believed that most photographers here will edit at least something in their work.
I also believed that even pros will edit their work.
But the point is, what are the main things to be edited?
Contrast? Brightness? Exposures? Skin tone? Blemishes?

Is there anyone to advise? Thanks.
 

Very simple. You edit whatever you need to edit in order to achieve the desired outcome. There is no "main list".
 

there are things that you can't control during the shoot
there are things that you can't achieve without post-processing
there are mistakes that you make during the shoot
etc etc

There are no fix things to edit.
Like what Rashkae mentioned, edit the image to achieve what you were planning before pressing the shutter button.
 

I always wonder this question as well. I see some beautiful effect; the original photo looks like NG scene in movie, sort of clean noiseless effect, and the final edited photo looks like actual movie effect scene. I don't know how to describe. What do they do in that kind of effect?
 

I always wonder this question as well. I see some beautiful effect; the original photo looks like NG scene in movie, sort of clean noiseless effect, and the final edited photo looks like actual movie effect scene. I don't know how to describe. What do they do in that kind of effect?

Here you go

[vid]XjvLF5N-1I8[/vid]

[vid]cKeUmleUDf0[/vid]
 

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I believed that most photographers here will edit at least something in their work.
I also believed that even pros will edit their work.
But the point is, what are the main things to be edited?
Contrast? Brightness? Exposures? Skin tone? Blemishes?

Is there anyone to advise? Thanks.
One of the meaning of editing found in dictionary .

Cut or eliminate

so the first thing to do is discard all the hopeless, unusable, inferior, ought to delete shots. however, I see many people fail to do this first.

secondly, examine the keepers, decide "what can" and "how to" make it perfect.
 

Some people remove dust spots, straighten the horizon. Others touch up the skin of the model (removing blackheads, red spots and whatever else disturbs). Others again do Black and White conversion, cross-processing ... you name it.
Most importantly: don't get disturbed by people telling you that only pictures 'straight from the camera' are the real pictures and everything else does not count (because of editing). We would miss a lot of beautiful images with this school of thoughts ...
 

For me...i basically edit the lighting on the photo..maybe made it brighter so the picture will look better..
 

Adjust contrast and saturation will do
 

I think it highly depends on what kind of emotions you want your image to portray? For example, to achieve a 'gloomy' or 'warm' look, it MIGHT require some heavy editing. But if you are looking at something more cheerful or bright, you may require lesser editing.

In the first place, it is important to see if your original picture actually conveys the message, if not, tweak it. In fact, during the process of tweaking and editing, you might even discover various 'ways' to convey the exact same picture! There's no rocket science about editing photos, it's more of a trail and error for me and I take the best outcome of various 'editions'.
 

I shoot in RAW most of the time so I need PP to enhance my photos. Usually, I will follow a standard workflow like adjusting the exposure, curves, white balance, vibrance and some sharpening in ACR if needed.
 

[video=youtube;yohi3iZaB_g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yohi3iZaB_g[/video]

a sample of high level beauty retouching.
 

Sorry was busy so didn't get online to check out the replies, I see lots of people having lots of opinions and advices. I am glad to actually read all.
Thank you all for helping out, now this question is away from my head already.
I also believed that we edit the photos for what we want it to be. Also agreeing that don't hear people saying that editing is fake. :D
 

Somehow a picture is not taken to look great it's how we made the picture to look great ya cheers.
 

I started taking in raw to explore what kind of editing can be done. I realised its a whole different world to explore!
 

Unless the photo is seriously flawed,
I only do the following:
1) Adjust white balance
2) Adjust contrast
3) Adjust sharpening

and usually in that order.