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> I notice that by far the most common change made is enhancing colour saturation. Every single picture is made more vibrant by retouching. After that, I notice the shadows are greatly reduced if not entirely eliminated, which also contributes to the general sense of "brightness" and saturation.

Most of us do this with our digital snapshots. I click a button that automatically, enhances a shot, adjusting the brightness, bringing hidden objects out of shadows, and improving clarity. It also does wonderfull stuff to the sky. Clouds are brighter and the sky is darkened. It's even better than the old dark-sky filters that we used on film. And if you don't like what it does, there is an undo button. Too bad film photos didn't have that.

I've always felt like a computer can make a good typist out of a lousey one, and I think comptuters and digital cameras can do that for lousey photographers.
How"lousey photographer/typist"ard