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I do, I start something, play with it for an hour or so, save it, come back a few days later, stuff around some more, save it again. Sometimes a do this for weeks. I couldn't possibly replicate the effect because I would have forgotten a lot of the steps in the process.
I usually start off with a photo that I am not too happy with and try things to improve it but I don't succeed very often.
Here is an example.

Original photo




This is after I stuffed it up

yep, I think the whole "less is more" strategy works well. Make sure you save often with different names so you can keep on improving the enhanced versions that are going in the right direction.

It's not always straight forward and very time consuming sometimes.

Oh yeah, I get carried away...

KPT6 Equalizer applied in excess

Outrageously whitened teeth

PP can be whetever you want it to be, no rules, no boundaries.

Not often, I like to keep PP to a minimum. If anything, I could be accused of being lazy with PP. BTW Philip, that is an interesting example of overdoing it. That looks to be a work of art taken from a rather lifeless begining.

Cheers

Matt

I guess you would have to call it a work of art since it is a one off original that I couldn't replicate.  BTW it's still a work in progress, I think I still have some filters and other plug-ins that I haven't applied yet, who knows what it will end up looking like.

Hahaha... So that is how you did it. I should give that a go sometime. I have never got into massive changes to a pic.

Cheers

Matt

Remember, Luke Skywalker, layers are your friend. The morning after the pleasant red wine haze wears off, when you can't recall just why it was that the cats eyes seemed better in that lilac shade, just delete the layer or, if you secretly love some of the more lurid effects, keep them on a layer that you can switch off when you want to show your creations to your more sophisticated viewers (like the members of this forum ) and switch back on for those who appreciate good art (ie you).

nice work philipb, like it