Use your preferred method of sharpening two to three times on the image so it's over sharpened ( at the output size for the web ). Now use the opacity slider on the layers panels to reduce the effect of the sharpening so you get to the point where you can't see any edge halos caused by the sharpening. If you set the blend mode on the layers panel to Luminosity, only the tonal information will be sharpened and not the colour information. This will improve the look of the sharpening. It may be imperceptible at web size but it will be an improvement.

I generally use the smart sharpen option as it sharpens edges rather than flat areas of tone. You can use a mask to paint out everything you don't want sharp so the b/g can remain soft and blurred. The High Pass filter is another good way of sharpening.

Alan.

I think this needs a slight crop, some added contrast and sharpening along with cloning out some of the more intrusive rocks around the bird. I also softened the water so the bird looked sharper.

IMO, a larger aperture ( f5.6 is the smallest I'd use. If possible f2.8-f4 would be better ) would help to isolate the bird by throwing the f/g and b/g out of focus and a lower point of view so you were more on the bird's level. Probably difficult to do, but worth a try.

The lighting is very good.

Alan.

I think the composition works well as does the subject.

In the mod I tried to bring out the colour and contrasts throughout the image. I used some dodge and burn methods to introduce some drama and impact to the water and sky. This helped the detail in the waterfall. Some sharpening also helped, imo, to show how much detail there is in this photo.

Alan.

In the mod I got rid of as much chromatic aberration as I could using ACR ( Adobe Camera Raw ). The sky looks as if it has had areas cloned which show up as lighter streaks and patches, particularly under the nose and mouth and behind the tied up hair. To sort this out I used a mask to mask out the girl and buildings and produced a new layer with a sky blue to horizon yellow and replaced the sky.

I increased the contrast and darkened the buildings. I increased the contrast of the girl and her dress then lightened up her face to simulate a light source similar to that on the buildings.

I finally sharpened the girl and to a lesser extent the buildings.

Alan.

I think the contrast could do with increasing, but only the near water and arch structure. If the contrast diminishes the further you go back into the scene then it will give the image more depth. This goes with saturation and sharpening also.

I chose to change the colour balance as the original has a yellow/green cast to it. Doing this will give slightly more colour differences and introduce a better warm/cool balance.

Selectively sharpening the shot will give the impression of more depth to the image, so just sharpen the f/g and arch structure. This can be done by sharpening everything, then click on the add layer mask button and paint using black to hide the areas you don't want sharpening.

Alan.

I like the photo although it may need a very slight contrast adjustment using the curves tool in Photoshop or Elements.

In the mod I blurred the background and slightly desaturated it. I increased the contrast and colour using curves and saturation tools and sharpened the girl only.

Blurring the background isolates the girl and focuses more attention on her. The blurring also reduces any distractions, such as detail or clearly defined shapes, melting them into soft shapes and tones.

I cloned out any small leaves or spots on the ground to further reduce any distractions.

I gave the photo a slight crop.

A lower view point may have helped connect the viewer with the girl better.

Alan.

I think you've just missed the point of focus, which seems to be slightly behind the bird.

In the mod I worked from your 'RAW' image, V5. I cloned out the distracting rails and lightened the dark area behind the bird. This allowed the shape of the bird to become clear against an OOF b/g. I thought a crop was necessary because the right side didn't help the composition imo. The bird could have been placed on a third but I liked the concrete intersecting the corner so the bird is more central. I changed the contrast and sharpened.

Alan.

I think this shot lacks contrast and the twigs in the bluebells look untidy.

In the mod I cloned out the twigs, increased the contrast using curves, improved the colour using the selective colour palette and sharpened. I feel these changes have given the photo more impact.

Alan.

I think the photo lacks contrast and a real focal point. The large rock seems to be that point but it's not large enough in the image. In trying to include everything the photo's impact is reduced. If you try to compose the shot thinking 'how can I simplify the elements within the viewfinder and still get my message across', then you'll have an image with more power for the viewer.

The mod has increased contrast and colour and is also sharpened.

The scene probably needs better or more dramatic lighting to realize its full potential.

Alan.

First, straighten up the verticals as this helps to relate the architecture to the sides of the frame.

I think a mono would produce a stronger image as there is little real colour in the shot and the graphic qualities of the louvre doors will come across better imo.

If you select different areas you can change the contrast of those selected areas so you can control each part of the photo.

Sharpening only the in focus areas will create 'bite' in the photo.

Alan.

I think the point of focus should be the eyes unless you have specific reasons for it being elsewhere, i.e. the nose, to suggest the dog's great sense of smell. At the moment the focus is behind the nose and in front of the eyes so it seems you haven't been as accurate as you could have been. With such a wide aperture focusing becomes critical as the DOF is so shallow.

The eyes appear too dark and devoid of detail, so it seems the exposure needs upping a little to allow the detail to show. In the mod I selected the eyes, lightened them and added contrast to counteract the lack of contrast the lightening process produces.

I feel a crop of the right side and the bottom has the effect of intensifying the composition. Also, slightly darkening the background projects the dog's face and paw forward to produce a slightly more 3-dimensional feel to the image.

Alan.

My first impressions are:

the photo needs a small clockwise rotation. The glass of milk seems to be on a slant.

the shadow appears too dark as the image is about lightness and subtle tones and colours. A small reflector could bounce light into this area at the picture taking stage.

the front of the cake has a granular look to it. This may be caused by sharpening the whole photo rather than targeting the sharpening ( using a layer mask ) to just the in focus areas. This will then allow the OOF parts of the image to remain soft and blurred with no sharpening artifacts or halos.

The small area of b/g showing to the very left of the glass of milk and just above the cake seems intrusive to me. Perhaps you could try to crop this out to see if it improves the photo.

I can't make up my mind about the cake's reflection and whether it is a necessary part in the image.

The highlights on the cake decoration seem to be blown out. Greater control of the exposure of this area may improve this aspect.

A slight vignette at the top of the photo could strengthen the look of this photo.

This is only an opinion and not meant to offend.

Alan.

I think you could improve this shot by focusing the lens better at the time of shooting, or using a tripod, cable release and mirror lock-up. It seems a little soft at the moment.

The subject is the bolt and its colours and textures but it's having to fight with the b/g. The b/g greens are quite vivid and they are placed on the same forward plane as the bright green on the bolt. This cancels out impact this colour has on the bolt.

In the mod I reduced the saturation and contrast of the b/g as well as cloning out the distracting bright lights of the sky and slightly increasing the b/g blurring with Gaussian Blur. This has the effect of pushing the b/g back where it belongs and bringing forward the subject of the photo.

For the bolt I slightly pepped up the colour, increased the mid-tone contrast and global contrast and tried multiple methods of sharpening to bring out the detail.

If the shot was sharply focused there would be less need to use so much sharpening in Photoshop.

If the mod was worked on at the full file size instead of a small jpg file then the quality would be far better.

This is only an opinion and not meant to offend.

Alan.

I think all this needs to improve it is to correct the colour balance, use levels and curves to extend the tonal range and increase the contrast and sharpen the in focus bird and rails only.

Alan.

I think the shot's a good'un but needs the white balance tweaking to get rid of the yellowish colour cast. If you look at an area that should be white then you can change it to look white in Photoshop.

The bird could use a bit of sharpening as it does look a little soft. Perhaps f8 and a higher ISO could yield sharper shots.

You're going to have many hours of looking for the perfect moss covered stick for your new subjects

Alan.

I think this is a good portrait although the slightly harsh lighting has the effect of showing all the undulations of the face.

In the mod I tried to even out this effect, lightening the entire face as well. I cloned out some of the stray eyebrow hairs, added more hair to the left side of the photo and cloned out some of the blemishes whilst keeping the skin texture normal.

There are some nose hairs which I cloned out as well as the blood vessels in the eye.

I also enhanced her eye and lip make-up a little.

There is evidence of cloning or a transformation on the bottom right of the frame where the hair is duplicated. I got rid of this using the transform tool.

The eye contact is excellent.

Alan.

The composition's fine but you must know the foreground and the two figures are too dark. A slight increase in exposure would help the detail in the figures and foreground.

My advice would be to either bracket your exposures so you can blend them in a photoshop type program, use a graduated neutral density filter to balance the exposure of the sky and the land or use fill-in flash to give the figures enough light to see them by.

I think fill-in flash would be the best way to achieve a decent photo of this scene, perhaps with a 0.3 ND Grad as well. The only problem with an NDGrad is the top of the figures would appear darker than the legs. The flash should help with this.

Tried a duotone for the mod. Excellent photo and a different viewpoint that makes the image stronger and more interesting imo.

Alan.

I think your second shot lacks contrast and your camera's auto focus seems to have focused on the reeds in front of the duck instead of the duck. Quite tricky to focus properly with grass in front of your subject.

Alan.

V2 is the best shot imo and is a really well composed image.

V3 is good too.

I think with v1, if it was possible to, getting down to the bird's level ( lying on the ground in effect ) would create a stronger composition. A very shallow DOF would also help to isolate the bird and strengthen the shot.

Alan.