Which one?

I showed one of these shots (_MG_1066_1024.jpg) to friend last night, via my PS3 and an HD TV. He thought it was a fabulous shot but I thought it could be improved so I went home and made a few edits. I sent the original and the edited version off to him and he still thinks the original is better but I am am more partial to the edited version. Which do you prefer?

Bob

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I prefer the original too.

I think you need somewhere in between. The first doesn't have enough color and the second looks over processed. Open the first photo in photoshop. Create a new layer on top that contains the second photo. Set the opacity of the second photo to about 15% and set the layer blending options to Overlay.

Here's what that makes it look like:

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Bob, the original looks best by far. It seems to lose something in the edits.....do know what it is can't pin point it. Looks more 3 dimensional.

First gets my vote, the second makes me shudder. A very slight curves adjustment is all that it probably needs and is similar in effect to using the overlay blend described earlier.