Before & After

Putting off packing for our family trip and playing around with Lightroom 3. I really like how I can import my photo files while leaving the originals where they are, tweaking the photos without affecting my originals then exporting  the ones I like back as another copy. I only have from the beginning of the year to go through because I want to get my calendar together soon. Hopefully, I will notice a huge difference in the results.



Above is a photo that I took of some plant which I like but that little bud is a tad too distracting. I tweak how I want the photo to look then open it in Photoshop Elements (can't afford the pro version) and try cloning out that bud.


Here is my crude attempt at cloning  but you get the idea. I also darkened the photo a bit (maybe too much?) but I had fun learning. It was a fun exercise. :)

Below is another example: here is the marsh taken after all the rains we received. Not a bad photo on its own but kind of blah.


I think the after version is much more interesting visually but that is my preference.
I'm trying not to overdo the tweaking because I've seen some HDR photos that seem way over the top. My goal is to enhance my photos not make them strange and unnatural. What do you think? Critiques are welcome and appreciated.