What can/can't you do?

I have been taking photos for about 4 good years now with the intention of someday working for a newspaper, magazine, sports wire... But I still am not sure of what a person is allowed to do in the way of fixing/changing a photo after it is taken. Currently I do not do anything to my photos after I take them. Everything just goes from my camera to the person I am taking the photos for.

Can anyone explain what the limits are to editing a photo if it is to be used in a newspaper?

Here is my criteria. Will be curious to see what others post.

CAN DO

Color correction - Only to return to natural color. Changing it to the point in changes the context is a no no.
Cropping
Straightening
Exposure adjustment - Only to return it to natural exposure. Over/Under exposing to change the context is a no no.
Sharpening - Always good to check with the end client as they may do sharpening as final production
Fix red eye

CAN'T DO

Clone anything in or out of the photo
Manipulate anything in the image - Move the ball, etc.
Basically anything that makes the photo different than exactly what was happening when you took it.

Editorially speaking you can crop, adjust a bit (tones), but for the most part get it right in camera and you don't have to worry about it. Pretty much if your changing what you saw it's a no-no! When shooting for an agency you're getting the images up fast, don't have much time to edit in the first place.

As Mike wrote... cropping, some levels/curves and sharpening. That's all. Leave rest for client if they have wish to do it. Because if you do it, and you do it wrong, you will be the one, who will have very very bad chances to ever work in this business again. If client does this, it's their problem
So stick to basics and get it right in camera.

For newspaper photography, the most important factor is to meet deadlines. Editing isn't much of a goal for photographers. Most editing will be handled by photo editors and page layout designers. Your goal as a newspaper photographer is to get the photo file to the photo editor as fast as possible.

Typically, that means carrying a notebook PC in the field, copying files from a camera's memory card to the PC, then selecting a few pictures, writing captions for those pictures, then using a wireless Internet link to upload the images to the photo desk. Then you head to the next assignment, and most newspaper photographers have several assignments each day.

Writing a caption, getting the image right in the camera, and meeting deadlines are more important to 21st-century newspaper photographers than editing an image.

Well it sounds like I'm on the right track then. I don't edit anything anyway I have just been told by friends that maybe I should because they think it might look better. And I understand not having enough time to edit too. My first big newspaper assignment was high school state championship basketball. The final game ended at 9:10pm and I had the pics sent around 9:25pm. 9:30 was my deadline.

Thanks for the replies

Sorry, I thought your question was what you can ethically do not what should you do when on a deadline.

@Big K
It started out as a very general question about "what can you ethically do" but I guess I just took to the deadline answers because I currently work under them. Maybe I should have phrased the question differently.

No problem at all. Glad you got the info you were looking for. Good luck and hope you land some good jobs.

Personally I still think cropping is photographers job. On deadline or not on deadline. I work 90% of time on extremely tight deadline (once when you are competing with agencies like Reuters, AFP etc. you really find out what deadline means ) but nevertheless, cropping is still my thing. You can change photo completely with cropping (in camera or later on computer). And I think it's photographers decision how photo will look. Now if someone counts this as editing or not is different question. But already just selecting which photos you will send is editing. So if we like it or not, we do edit ourself.

@primoz
I completely agree that cropping is very important. luckily I have only had a couple of jobs where I was not aloud too crop my images. I guess I overlook this as an editing technique because I do it so much.

For the most part I try to crop to a certain ratio (6x9 300dpi) if possible and upload after a quick, if any, level adjustment and sometimes unsharp - that's it. As mentioned the client can do what they want as they're determining how it's presented and I'm not.

STILL my favorite line ever was a girl telling me she was "almost done with a photo", she just had to "ad some stuff in and take some out". This after asking me about five times how to take my job.