Why Generation X people don't like spending time in editing their landscape photos?

Posting a SooC (straight out of camera) is a point of pride for many old farts

example (edited in Lightroom)

vs SooC

this Frogmouth came by to say G'day tonight and my non-DSLR Cannon SX60 is just as good... ime some skill + bit of luck is what Photography is really about mate

I'm a Gen-Xer and shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III. I've always edited my photos.

Before the digital era, I spent many school lunchtimes in the school darkroom with chemicals, dodging and burning.

My experience is that it's the Baby Boomers and older who don't edit as much as the younger generations.

I am a bit too old to be Generation -X (by your definition) but I think you are asking this question in the wrong place. A Photoshop/Lightroom  forum is going to be populated mainly by folk who do edit their images.

The sales of Photoshop since the Photography plan was created suggest that more people than ever have access to pro-editing applications. Are you suggesting that Gen-X people are not a significant part of that growth?

As for the "high class cameras". Folk in that age band do tend to have a higher disposable income which brings the ability to choose a more expensive camera. It does surprise me sometimes , in these forums, where someone has purchased the latest camera but is unwilling to join the subscription for the latest software with which to use it.

Dave

Did it ever occur to you that some of the Images they get from their camera satisfies their needs so they juste delete the others. They need not wast their time editiing images they don't need

Gen X-er here - Interesting question. I'm curious what your expectation for editing is, what type of images you mean (like for what purpose--special occasion, work, or personal photos), and if you mean using Lightroom mobile on a phone before posting online. I'm also interested in what is your generation.

I use a Fujifilm X-T10 and my Pixel 3XL. I use them for different purposes. For special events, I usually use the X-T10, take a lot of photos, sort through them to pick the best ones, edit those at varying levels (some extensively depending on what I'm trying to achieve and some not so much--mainly exposure and cropping/rotating), and post those. For casual gatherings and unplanned photo-taking, I'll use my phone. I take a handful of shots for "safety" and pick the best to post on social media--usually without much or any editing. Photos I print are almost entirely taken from the X-T10 and are edited.

I think your question is interesting because of the Gen X aspect. When I was younger, I liked taking pictures, but it was a different experience. It was expensive. I wouldn't know what I had captured until it was developed, so I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked. But now with digital photography, I feel like I have a lot more freedom to take shots--maybe I take too many. My general approach is to get it as close to what I want in camera and then edit. The context has a lot to do with the level of editing. If the photo captures a significant moment, I'll spend more time crafting it. If it's casual and looks pretty good, I'll likely upload it untouched.

But I may not be a good representative sample of Gen Xers. I work in digital media, so I'm much more comfortable with experimenting with new software and techniques.

Maybe they don't have Lightroom or Photoshop and don't know how to use them? I'm genX and I do minimal processing because I go through 100's of photos at a time for my scrapbooks.

I had no idea I was a gen X, but I am in the club 61-80 and I actually LOVE editing, but this is what I have for you, three answers:

1) people who used film cameras, they used to drop their films in labs that automatically enhanced their pictures and delivered them ready on paper. So they are convinced that they saw their pictures as they were on the film. Indeed, an automatic enhancing elaboration was made on them, mostly on contrast, saturation and brightness. But they do not know. So they think that the only picture possible is straight out of the camera, not even enhancing allowed, and for a sense of authenticity and continuity, they do not retouch anything. But it is based on a misconception;

2) people who do not know what to do. They look at their pictures and they either lack a visual education, a creative mindset, or they lack any knowledge of editing programs and out of fear that they will do the wrong thing on their pictures, they rather let that go. So this one is based on a lack of education of some sorts;

3) people who have different philosophical approaches. This is a bit theoretical, but since photography exists, we have two main streams that rarely meet: one is the one that consider photography as a sort of science, or documentation instrument and sees the photograph as a mirror of reality; the other one is an artistic view, where pictorialism found home, that since the very beginning considered photographs as a layer for a more creative work of art. Instead of just documenting reality, it could be used to unleash your own fantasy and sense of creation. Since always, the two streams do not communicate well with each other, and so there are people like I, a gen X that did not even know to be a gen X, but that belong to the pictorialist legacy, that sees an opportunity to endlessly enhance to match a feeling, and edit and create something more than just the thing as it is, and there are people who look at pictures as a way to represent reality that must be left as it is. So this explanation is based on different philosophies at the core bottom of the reasons why the very picture is taken.

I'm Gen X and I do all the time.  This is a really, REALLY odd question.

Actually, some of them do, they just make sure they're not caught doing it :-D

vibhu000  wrote I know lots of Gen X people (born in between 1961 and 1980) who don't like editing their photos...

Hi vibhu,

Have you already asked the ”lots of Gen X people” you know? What are their answers?

Jane