How much do you edit your photos with software?

You can polish a turd but it will still be a turd. So I prefer to do my landscape photography out in the field, and capture the best photo I possibly can in my camera. That means I’m taking the time in the field to find the best composition so I don’t have to clone/stretch/warp later. I’m waiting for the best possible conditions so I don’t have to swap a sky out. And I’m shooting at specific times of year so I don’t have to change the colors of the leaves or add a few extra flowers in Photoshop. Then once I have the best raw photo I think I can take I use post processing to make that photo sing.

Generally speaking I think you should let the light and landscape speak for itself, meaning if you find yourself painting in light and atmosphere you’re doing a disservice to the landscape. As a consequence my editing is often very simple: 10-20 minutes in Lightroom in most cases. However, I also believe that post processing should be an extension of your vision in the field, so on certain images I will spend up to an hour dodging and burning, blending exposures, fine tuning the color palette, and making other tweaks so that the final image showcases exactly what I think is incredible about a particular landscape.