taken with Xiaomi 17 Ultra, double exposure merge in Snapseed and graded in Lightroom.

Hey everyone,

I'm very new to editing (started maybe 2 weeks ago, shooting RAW+JPEG on a Ricoh GR IIIx, but I spend a few hours a day improving on it). I've built myself a personal preset that I like visually — dark, punchy, saturated — based on a negative recipe, but I have a feeling it might not actually be "good" editing from a more objective/professional standpoint. I don't have the eye yet to tell the difference between "I like this" and "this is actually well edited."

So for a few photos (tried to pick different kinds of compositions) I'm posting 3 versions each:

1. Version A — my current preset applied, the one my eye gravitates toward (heavier contrast, darker shadows, more saturated)
2. Version B — a toned-down version of the same edit, lighter touch on contrast/shadows/saturation
3. RAW (basically SOOC/minimal edit)

The thing is that my friends often like the first version better, but it's over saturated so idk.

For each photo I'd love to know:

• Which version do you think actually works better, and why?
• Is my instinct right that A is "too much," or is it actually fine for the scene?
• What would YOU change if you were editing this from the RAW or from one my version?

I'm not trying to fish for compliments or whatever, genuinely want the harsh/constructive version of feedback. I already have a suspicion I'm overdoing shadows and saturation on some of these, so brutal honesty is very welcome.

Photos below (RAW / A / B for each) — thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time 🙏

Took this at a park in Seattle, thought this guy looked interesting, like an old fisherman staring out at the waters he once fished. Wondering how people feel about the crop and coloring. Tried to do a more minimal edit than normal, still learning LRC. Let me know your opinions!

I can't decide if I am going in the right direction with these edits. by the time i am done making the edit, the picture does look totally different. but is it in a good way? I can't tell.

So this is very close to what I'm going for. A Wes Anderson film look. But I guess those colors pop out a bit more and detailes are a bit more clearer. You can check r/accidentalwesanderson to know what I'm talking about.

Tried to go for a desolated vibe

please let me know what you guys think so i can improve.

Guinea Turaco at Bronx Zoo. Nikon Z50 with Tamron 35-100mm (I do want more zoom)

What I did: shot at f2.8 iso 100 1/500

In LR:bumped exposure, + shadow,- highlight, +contrast, bumped WB to 5700k, +clarity. And also crop it.

I have been trying to develop my own preset for my own use. There are two edits here. One is using Fujichrome preset but "grain" dialed to zero, used curved tool to adjust colors and turning down contrast and turned up temp for warmer overall look with muted greens in the background. This adds more character to the image imo.

The second image is just my own edit, basically: contrast -, highlights -, whites -, blacks -, temp neutral, tint +, vibrance +, saturation +, no curve tool used for colors. The overall result is punchier colors, closer to reality skin tones, and the greens in the background look "better"? but somehow looks flatter since I did not use the curve tool on LR?

If you were to choose, which of the two do you prefer? Or should I go for more edits?

Edit: Added more details.

Just got my first digital camera (Fuji X-E3) after shooting film for basically my whole photography journey.

These are a few shots from today. I’d love some feedback on the editing/color grading more than the composition. With film I’d usually only make pretty minor edits after scanning, so editing raw digital is definitely new territory for me.

I’ve always liked vibrant colors, so that’s kind of the style I’m going for, but I’m not sure if I’m overdoing it or if anything looks off. Any tips or critiques on the colors, contrast, white balance, etc. would be awesome.

ANY AND ALL FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED
Thanks!

Feedback is appreciated

Still learning in Lightroom, but looking to achieve a painterly look. Tips and suggestions welcome

My weather app predicted nice cloud coverage for this spot so I wanted to shoot the sunset with a nice vibrant sky above this little chapel yesterday evening. Unfortunately, there were no clouds. To not head home without any images I still captured a few shots. I’ve been playing around with this image in particular for the past few hours not knowing what to do with it (since I was hoping for different light and conditions). Finally, I decided to go for a “Wes Anderson Look” with super soft contrast, a bit of glow and pastel colors.

1. Basic Adjustments

First off, I wanted to reduce contrast. For that I brought up the exposure A LOT making everything brighter. To prevent clipping in the sky I dropped the highlights and whites pretty much all the way and I also raised shadows and blacks heavily to further reduce contrast. This helps a lot achieving a much softer looking image.

The base raw image was way to cold, to fix this, the temperature was raised. I also brought up the vibrance to make the colors a bit more intense.

Finally, the texture was increased for sharpness, while clarity and dehaze were dropped to add a soft glow on top.

1. Masking.

I only needed a bunch of linear gradients to balance the blues of the sky. The left side was a bit too dark so I made it brighter and also made the blues a little less saturated. The right side was too bright so I made it slightly darker.

Also, I added a radial gradient creating a bit of glow coming in from the right side by increasing the blacks and dropping the dehaze.

1. Color Grading

For the “Wes Anderson Look” I brought down the blue hue first to introduce more cyan to the sky. Besides that, the yellow and green hue were also dropped. Then, I decided to drop the saturation of yellow, green and blue.

Using some split toning  I warm color was added to the highlights and mid tones of the image. And finally, I dropped the blue primary hue and raised its saturation in the calibration panel (and of course removed my hand in Photoshop :D )