or just learn to take good pics. That pic is not photoshopped at all. Straight out of the camera to the computer
If Ansel Adams was alive to read your post he'd be here responding instead of me. I know this is an [age] old argument, but it seems that you may not have been around for our previous discussions on the topic.
Ansel Adams was a master photographer. He invented the zone system and got the very most out of every step in the photographic process. Since making "pictures" used to involve a dark room, Adams spent time perfecting this part of the process, too. He spent hour upon hour working a single image in the dark room; perfecting exposure, the use filters for increasing/decreasing contrast, cross-developing film and paper stocks. While he didn't have access to trick HDR algorithms he did utilize techniques to achieve a similar effect. In short, he manipulated the camera, film, developing and enlargement process to within an inch of its life to achieve his fantastic results.
Now, back to Photoshop: Photoshop is just a tool not a bad word. I can understand the sour impression you may be left with after seeing some of the horrid PS actions and their results online. But I implore you to reconsider your impression of post processing. PS is an extremely effective tool for bringing out the most in your images.
For example, the image I posted above was manipulated in Lightroom/Photoshop to good result. Without PS the image is flat. With a little cropping, contrast, brightness, saturation, vignette and sharpening I am able to bring out the most in the image. I used only non destructive techniques and not a single Action, much less the HDR feature of PS. Say what you will about the image itself, but you can not deny the process of careful PS manipulation lead to a markedly better result.
Here's a comparison of the image straight from camera compared to my final result:
PS: If you can find a camera to take pictures like this without any post processing buy it and turn pro. Seriously.
