Two lastest fav's

I love these two pictures of my last wedding but I think that they are still missing something... I love the detailed soft (I call it suede) look similar to #1 in Toogy's last thread (tara) but I can't seem to figure out how to effectively achieve it. Any pp pointers on what looks good or what I can do to improve these would be appreciated!

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First off, the second pic looks abit out of focus to me, but that may be from the web resizing. Even the first looks to have some artifactive from resizing. Hopefully it's just that and not OOF pics.

For the first, I dont' know if black and white is the best for this pic...there isn't enough contrast for me, the white dress and bown out sky is almost hard on the eyes cause there are no darker spots. It's too bad that there is a bush behind her face as well. But the look of her face I like quite a bit. I would try and play with contrast levels and do some selective burning of the edges and back ground. Also clone out the pot "hangar" over her head. It looks like an antenna is coming off the top unfortunately.

For the second, this one has real good potential as well...Too bad the hands were cropped off on the bottom. Same issue with cluttered background. Maybe burn some parts to lower the detail and clutter. But other than that I like it.

I can get the hands back on the 2nd pic. I cropped them off by mistake. Good idea on the burning, I would not have thought to do this. I will play with that and see what I come up with. As for #1 I never noticed the hanger coming out of her head...oops! I tried this one in BW because there was so much color variety in the background that I found it a bit distracting. I will play a bit and repost them. Keep it coming I love this kind of critique! Thanks Shane!

Round #2... better or not quite there yet?

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It looks a bit rough compressed like this compared to the original file. I love this completely candid moment and really want to make it all it can be. Thank you for the cc and advice!

and #1 again with more contrast...

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i'd like to know what your iso setting was at - and the lens you used. these are not as clear as i would like, but they are not terrible either. the black and white is a bit flat, lacks a bit of luster, the color one is a tad flat as well, could use some pop. really i think you could improve these with your pp, waht type of actions do you use?

It was iso 100 with a 17-55 2.8 IS. I totally agree that they could be better. How do I get the "pop" that you are speaking of? I am using lightroom and ps elements 5 and right now and currently have no premade actions, do I need them? I'm sure they are great to have but can I achieve the same result without them? How can I make these pictures lusterful and not flat??

Any chance you would feel comfortable enough to give us access to the original file so we could give a run at it??

yup, hand it over Krista, let's see what we have to work with

I have absolutely no problem with that....but what do I need to do to give you access to them?

just turn your image editing okay on in your preferences.

I really like #2 but I think the most distracting thing about it is the sky contrasting with the rest of the background.

Done! Have at them!!!