Fall Ivy

Hello again! Please CC! Thanks so much!!!

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The lighting is flat, but saturation is good. I think the biggest problem is the dead area of the bottom left corner. Also, try to zoom in on one item, like the red leaf in the bottom right; or zoom out to fill the fram w/ all the colors.

I agree with jpq you need to get closer... nice colors!!

I think your composition is great. Sometimes a balance with some negative space is good. I do agree it may be a little flat and I'd add there seems to be some lens distortion near the edges which could be fixed in PS. I'd also suggest some slight sharpening would help it a lot. It's a lovely shot though with the red leaves and contrasting blue berries.

Thanks for the comments everyone! It was cloudy when I took this picture, but I think I'll go back out when it's sunny to see if I can get some better light on it. I too liked the negative space in the frame, but I see what everyone else is saying. I did take some close up shots that I rather liked as well.

SwingBopper- What is lens distortion and how can I fix it?

Thanks again for the comments! I couldn't improve without them!!

Crop out the dead leaf at the top right.then a little level in light and contrast.slight sharp. I really like vines against weathered wood.

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Thanks Flo! I really dig the crop!

Cropped, and jazzercised. Nice shot.
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If you are using CS3 choose: FILTER - DISTORT - LENS CORRECTION
then using the Transform sliders try Vertical Perspective +5 and Horizontal +1
After that do a slight crop to eliminate the dead borders, a little sharpen, maybe bump contrast a bit with levels or curves and that's it.
EDIT: Sharpen should probably be your final editing task.
Here's my take on it; but my monitor tends to be bright so it may look a little dark to you. I try to compensate by over-brightening; but sometimes I miss the mark.

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Thanks so much for all of the suggestions everyone! I appreciate it so much!

I hope you don't mind that I took some liberty with this shot. Your original composition looked really fun.

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OK, so here's my take...

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Sweet crops and PP everyone! Thanks for the input. I don't know that much about PS, so this is very helpful for me. You guys are awesome!

To be honest, I cannot afford Photoshop so I use another slightly cheaper post processing program: Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate, maybe one day I'll have enough clams to buy the real PS...

honestly, out of all the posted variations, the original's still the best. when i first saw the picture, my initial reaction was "ooh, i like it." the contrasting green and red leaves and blueberries are just awesome. if i were you, i would experiment with perspectives in this kind of shot, like shooting closer up and from the bottom or side or something. also, maybe try putting a skinny black frame around it - that makes any picture look better. nice picture, overall.