How much editing?

Before and After, originally uploaded by ted.sali.

Sometimes, a whole lot.
I said in my post last night that this shot was very boring out of camera. I did want something more memorable, but right out of camera I couldn't pull it off, this one needed editing in photoshop and lightroom.
Now what's really interesting is that it looks like I may have spent a long time on this image, when in reality I only spent a few minutes. Now that I really understand how the orton technique works in the digital realm, I've gone ahead and created an action to perform it automatically. To create the dream like quality in some of my other portraits now only takes a few moments of my time, and to blow it over the top like this only takes seconds more in lightroom.
The result is an image that the client will look at and think "wow, that's amazing" without knowing that it's actually a combination of techniques the photographer uses every day.
Still, saying that it's simple now betrays the fact that getting a really good handle on the orton technique takes some time. I've been messing around with it on and off for about six months, only recently getting a good grip on it. It's simple to do this now because I've done all the work already, and now I know what works.