I am by no means a post-processing master, I have only started to do post-processing in the last few months an found it more then necessary on most images I take, not that the photo is bad. Post-processing allows to add so much more vibrance to photos, some may call it cheating, I used to, I do not believe it anymore.
For example take this photo (all photos have been resized to 600×400 pixels):
No post-processing
High Pass Sharpening with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
Post-processed with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 all automatic, maybe a little too sharp
Post-processed with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 all automatic
Tone-mapped with High Dynamic Range in Photomatix Pro 3.2 using 3 photos.
Exposure Fusion with Photomatix Pro 3.2 using 3 photos.
Personally the Exposure Fusion and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 are my favourite, however for Exposure Fusion as for High Dynamic Range it takes at least 2 identical photos at different exposure like HDR to achieve any results, that means using a tripod and ideally taking 3 to 7 photos at different exposure to get the best results and I will need to buy Photomatix Pro 3 as i am only running the trial at this time, see the watermarks?
I would also love to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 but the premium is preventing me right now, the demo is great though, I love it.
I still have so much to learn from post-processing, next thing you know I’ll be using Photoshop 
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Tags: Post-processing
Pascal, the premium on LR is more than well worth it. I’ve been using it for about a year or so, and I’m glad to see that your tests confirm that it’s the right choice. The other thing that I like about it is that it has export plugins for WordPress, Flickr, Facebook and a few others. Downside, it’s a serious memory hog, especially if you have a few thousand pics in it.
By the way the iPod’s full of music, it’s a hopeless photo viewer. Wondering about the Arcos as a photo viewer but it’s pricy.
Cheers, Charl