I once read that professional photographers spend about 20% of their time shooting and 80% editing pictures. When I got back into photography, it was because I loved shooting. I still love shooting. When I am making pictures I feel as if I'm in my element. I could shoot for days. But after all that shooting comes post production.

Some of my photographer friends talk about putting on some of their favorite music and sitting down in front of Lightroom or Photoshop for hours. I'll admit, photo editing isn't nearly as much fun as shooting, but I've been editing long enough now to consider it part of the process. In fact, I find photo editing to be, at times, relaxing.

My LG G2 cell photo takes nice pictures. It automatically adds contrast and saturation in an attempt make the pictures pop. Some of the G2 pictures look OK on Facebook, but [Facebook] limits the picture size on the screen. If you're planning to print a cell phone snapshot, forget it. Today's cellphones can pack in the pixels, but the size of the phone's sensor; the component that litterally records the image, is too small to produce a really good print. If I may digress for a moment, corporate marketers will say anything to sell a product, not caring if the claim is really true. Corporate marketers tend to set really low bars for their products in order to make claims, or selling points as they like to call it. Megapixels has been used a selling point since the early days of digital photography. While my G2 can produce nice images, I wouldn't dare shoot your event with it. The Iphone takes really nice pictures too, but again, I wouldn't shoot an event or make a portrait with it. Their genre is snapshots.

Why edit photos at all? There are several reasons but primarily edits are made to remove distractions. The best pictures tend to create a relationship between you, the viewer and the subject. A parking lot in the background full of uninteresting cars does nothing to add to a portrait. A pimple on a face, isn't a permanent feature so it should be removed. Some photos look better with more vibrant colors (saturation) while desaturating a photo can create a certain look and feel. There are virtually limitless ways to edit an image. Every photo should be edited in some way, whether it's in camera as with my LG G2 or an Iphone, or in photo editing software like Lightroom and Photoshop.

Whether you shoot professionally, or as a hobby, how much time, if any, do you spend editing your photos?