I spent 4 years editing photos wrong until a single shot in Utah made it click | Astronomy Photos - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
kinda makes you wonder if the whole "fix it in post" mindset actually gets in the way of seeing the light right in front of you. like, you can tweak shadows and saturation forever, but that Utah shot probably forced you to trust the natural moment instead of overthinking it. i had a similar thing happen with a sunrise once, realized i was so busy adjusting exposure that i missed the actual color change happening live. now i try to take one unedited raw shot before messing with anything, just to remind myself what the scene really looked like.