A walk in the woods

Any suggestions on how I can improve this? I tried b & w, but wasn't thrilled with the results.

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Quick 10 second edit, trying to liven it up a bit.

Just did:
Crop
Local contrast enhancement (Unsharp mask with 60/0.2)
Unsharp mask with 0.1/0.6

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The edit is nice; but lost some shadow detail. I think your original is good as is. What's wrong with it in your eyes?

I think the composition is probably the main thing that could be improved with this shot. Having the little fellow on the left of the frame walking into the shot and also including more of the path winding away would create more of a story of the journey. It could also have been worth trying to getting down lower to see the scene more from his perspective rather than looking down on him.

Yes, I agree with woodsie. I would go down lower, to below his eye level, have the little guy in sharp focus, and take in a blurred image of where he's going.

Still, I do like the original picture.

The edit is oversharpened, especially the child. IMO, the original doesn't need much more than slight boosts in contrast and saturation, and a tiny bit of a crop to exclude the bright tree-trunk on the left and to put the child a litte more off-center, too. The slight contrast boost may provide all the sharpness needed here, without actually needing a real sharpness tool---it is that close.

The above edit almost shows that digital photography is approaching the point where the unatural looks natural. We need to work at editing a normal shot so as the results look natural to the eye, along with the mind's eye. Sure, you can sharpen just about any image---you can also oversharpen any image if you aren't careful.

Great image, by the way!

woodsie wrote in post #6803900
I think the composition is probably the main thing that could be improved with this shot. Having the little fellow on the left of the frame walking into the shot and also including more of the path winding away would create more of a story of the journey. It could also have been worth trying to getting down lower to see the scene more from his perspective rather than looking down on him.

My take also. I like the sharpening on the second shot.