Everyone knows, digital photos lack a certain liveliness. No serious photographer these days shoots without relying on post-processing. Even when careless while shooting, Photoshop — or any other photo editing software — salvage and beautify work.

Imaging softwares have become as important as the process of taking a picture itself. And there is more to it: Photoshop & Co. fool us into believing that there’s a better, a more beautiful, a perfect world out there.

In case you’ve missed it, of all things, healthcare giant Dove shows us how sad a cute woman looks compared to her photoshopped ideal:

Similarly, which photographer who doesn’t count on the help of Photoshop doesn’t have a low self-esteem.

Post-processing may help you become a better photographer, it’s a simple as that.

One could even go further and claim that the process of photography itself is less and less important. It’s more and more about post-processing skills.

But let’s say you are doing portraiture professionally, you’ll find that the time you spend behind the camera shooting is worth about $100 per hour, while the time you spend behind the computer doing post-processing is only worth about $10 per hour.

Therefore, anything you can do to reduce your post-processing time not only works to your financial advantage.

Don’t rely too much on squeezing those RAWs.

Trust the moment, your gear, your eye.

You’re becoming a better photographer, discovering beauty in what’s ignored by many of those masters of Photoshop.

Everyone and everything can be gorgeous.

It’s all up to you.