I shoot in RAW DNG AdobeRGB and then process the images then convert to JPEG sRGB for the interwebz. I don't manipulate the photos by adding and removing elements. However manipulating can refer to many things such as a small edit of the colors or even cropping can refer to removing elements; However from my perspective, it's adding or removing elements such as a person or a vehicle from the photo or adding a person or a vehicle to the photo.
Now when I post process, Itry to minimize hotspots and overblown highlights with shadow/highlights, play with a minor S curve for more contrast, do individual hue/saturation to correct white balance, I then do a minor sharpening and avoid halos and jaggies, lastly I do a crop if needed. When I do a B&W conversion however, I play with the colors in the B&W before fully converting to B&W such as editing the red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, etc.
Speaking of anti-pp purists, I've encountered one a couple days ago on Flickr. I don't blame them, I know exactly how they felt as I feel the same way about photo manipulation of adding and removing elements of a photo, or doing layers of photos at a time. I however keep my mouth shut and avoid a stir when I see a photo processed that way. I'm a happy guy.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/k5/discuss/72157630684241884/ - I'm ItzDaveee
Here's a photo of what I did from stating what I do in the above, I did all of that within this picture, I even cropped almost 50 percent.
Last edited by LeDave; 07-26-2012 at 10:08 AM.