Dodge & Burn - Critique

Just started doing dodging & burning. Let me know what you think

The original would help; its a nice exposure however. Direct flash it seems?

Yes, let's see the unedited version!

Here is the unedited version.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by TINYPIC

As an exercise, I guess you can say that it was worthwhile.

However, on the issue of whether the manipulated image is an improvement over the unprocessed image, I would say it's questionable. In other words, I think you had a more natural looking image originally.

Do you really feel that you have improved the image significantly? It looked good to start with.

I think the edit looks much better than the original. The colors are much more vivid.