Some post-processing comparisons
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 
