Is a photographer need to know photo retouch ?

I know, if a photographer have little knowledge about photo retouching then it is batter for him/her. But my question is that ,is it essential ? If you well talent on photography but can't do retouch then is it not possible to you take it for your profession ?

Good question.  Some might argue and say if you are a REALLY great photographer, then you don't need to photo retouch.   I think most won't fall into that category and post processing is just another part of the image creation.  Look at some of the iconic photographers of today, most post process.  


It's a skill like it or not, you should work on to perfect.  

A photographer definitely needs to have some retouching, post processing, photoshop, etc skills. I can't think of a single noteworthy one that doesn't.....

All good points, I would make the time to learn the art of post processing. 

IMO 100% you need to learn how to photo retouch, your completion is.  Think about that. 

Every photographer, film or digital, who has ever had control of the processing of the final image has.  You should.  You will create the image you want...usually impossible with camera alone.

Thanks all for your valuable comment, but if a photographer not expert in photo retouching or post processing, maybe s/he have some knowledge on it but it's not enough to how clients want, then can s/he take it (photography) as his/her profession?

That photographer can learn it just like everyone else.  He's not the only one tackling that learning curve

Knowing some sort of post processing is nearly as important as knowing how to adjust the cameras settings  for a correct exposure IMO

Sooner or later you will need to learn that side of the industry, might as well get it out of the way.

Sure would be nice to be able to do but I don't think it's all that necessary. Of course that does depend on how well you get your photo's right out of the camera. I do very little PP for no other reason than I can't figure it out. Then again I don't do this for a living either. Another point is most the people looking for photographs are looking for good clean sharp photo's and know even less about PP than you do. Those people are all over and I expect they will out number the other crowd by a good margin. The real question is what do you think? Are your photo's right out of the camera really that good? I think I read where Nat Geo magazine does a contest and no PP is allowed! Be honest with yourself, are your photo's really good enough they won't embarrass you? There's a lot more to making a living with anything than being great at it. But if your not very good, well learn to PP!

About the only photo's I sell are taken at field trials and the people wanting them can have them long before they go home. I know other's won't let anyone else see what they took until they've PP'd it! I questioned my own photo's last year with some folk's at a few different trials. They think I'm a pro, not even close. What I do do is get the shot's no one else does, get clean shot's and process them on site. Shoot, I even frame them on site!

I think that many people probably over PP just to get what they think they saw. In the process some of them look weird. Most people do it I think to drive toward the perfect photo, never reach it and people don't care that near as much as good clean photo's. Go on a dog site and ask how important PP is in their dog photo's. Most won't understand what your talking about! There are relatively few people in the world that recognize photo art or even care about it but lot's of people that know a crappy photo when they see it! Don't do crappy photo's and there is a big pool of people out there to sell to. Who was that guy they were talking about on here a while back? A photographer people here seem to think is sub par but the guy is making big money! Terll me how that works. I think I know, he take's good photo's and he understand's marketing extremely well. Skill's he might lack as a photographer are more than made up for with his skills in business!