Golden Autumn morning CC-Need advise

These are all the same scene but with slightly different compostions and camera settings.
I wanted to enter one of them in a club photo contest. Is one any better than the other? I would appreciate any opinions on them or any advise on PP work I should do on them.

#!

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The last one is my choice Carol . I tried the following adjustments in PS Elements 3 : used Auto Smartfix,and then increased saturation by: Red +2,Yellow +4 and Blue + 6.Also used unsharp at Radius .04. Nice colours and lovely scene. Thanks for sharing.

Carol nice series,#2+4 are my favorites.Best of luck with the contest.


john20d,gitzo and stuff

While "better" is quite subjective, the two I really like (in order) are numbers two and four. #2 narrowly beats #4 to me, but not by much!

You're right about how the light can change in a dramatic way!

I like the last two. Colors are more rich, and the sky isn't as blown as the first few. Thumbs up for autumn pictures Maybe a GND filter or HDR may help with the sky a bit.

Yep 2 for me but 4 is close , nice pics cracking colours.

brian r.

I would go for #1 Carol,a bit of work on the sky maybe?

I redid shot #1 but I am now wondering if any of the shots are good enough to submit.

I am confused about blown highlights. I was very careful regarding not showing any on the histogram. The sky was actually a very light blue because it was so early in the morning.
Here is the edit of #1. Hope I did not get too carried away. I can do this in photoshop to any of the others too.

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I would go for 2 and 3, but would say they need underexposing a little and the sky needs darkening despite the time of day it just detracts from the shots.

I always preferred the composition in #1 and the redo PP puts it into the lead for me. 2 and 4 are close and 2 would benefit from some darkening as Nealyb says.

I like #1 the best personally. I like the contrast between the foreground and background.

Thanks for all the help and comments everyone!
It looks like #1 and #2 are the favorites although some of you liked the last two. I like #1 now that I redid it and as soon as I get the chance I will probably redo #2.
I was hoping you would see the redo on #1 Dimitri, since you suggested it.

I'm absolutely loving the colours you folks are getting at the moment.

We've had a strangely long summer and things are just starting to show change.

Thanks for commenting, Scottie. I wish our summer had been longer. This fall we have had very few days of sun. It is raining again today and is supposed to keep raining for the next several days. Fall colors will probably be about done when it stops.
Neil, I also redid #2 as you suggested and it looks much better!