How much photoshopping for pictures?

[999roses]

If you just wanted to enhance your pictures, what are some rough guidelines you follow not to compromise the original quality of the pics while at the same time getting better results?

I try not to play with filters, but I do more contrast/lighting, cropping, rotating, etc.

[beansprouts]

^If you don't want to compromise too much, then the safest is what you listed, just playing around with the contrast/brightness and rotating. Cropping depends, if you crop too much of the picture out, what is left may just be a tiny fraction of the original and the resolution may not be that good. Sometimes I will change the tone too, more yellowish or reddish. Some cameras make the colours too vibrant, which some people like, but I prefer my pictures to be as close to the original settings that it was taken as possible.

I will photoshop away pimples/blemishes if the picture is taken up close, not to the extent that the people in it have flawless (and fake) complexion, but remove glaring blemishes in order to increase the overall aesthetics of the picture. Of course, this is also cause nobody likes to see their pimples captured, magnified and preserved for eternity.