Editing photos but not make it look fake?

[sw3etpinay]

I'm a senior in high school and it's that time where we have to send our senior portraits for the yearbook!
I have already gotten my photos taken by my sister. We used a decent camera, but the photos need some tweaking.
Since this is going in the yearbook, I'm hoping the editing wouldn't be pretty obvious, natural is key for me >_<.

Here's my top choice senior pics:
All sizes | DSC09083 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
All sizes | DSC09064 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
DSC09050 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

We used a Sony DSC-H5 camera btw if that matters.

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[MTVision]

So what are you asking? If you edit the photos will they look fake/obviously edited? They won't look fake if whoever edits it knows what they are doing. All photos are edited/processed.

[Sw1tchFX]

If I paint my car red and put racing stripes on it, does that make it fast?

What i'm trying to say is that the source material is a little iffy. Poor compositions with a lousy camera. Any adjustments made are going to look fake, forced, and unnatural. Because they will be fake, forced, and unnatural.

[Peano]

All of your shots have lighting problems. Most could have benefited from fill flash, but that's just hindsight.

They could be improved using Photoshop, but the edits require some moderately advanced skills. In this one, for instance,
most of the light is on the background, very little on your pretty face. So the aim would be to reverse that ... less light
on the surroundings, more on you. Something like this (just done quickly to illustrate) ...

[dots]

If I paint my car red and put racing stripes on it, does that make it fast?

LOL

It used to make cars fast.

[Peano]

Another illustration of how your images might be improved ...



By the way, you're right. The Sony DSC-H5 is a decent camera, not a "lousy" camera.

You can read a competent, professional review here.

[sw3etpinay]

Whoa weird, I didn't get notifications >_<. Thanks for the tips everyone! My question was not straightforward, I apologize. But I got it answered thank you!

[arkipix1001]

kool...nice demo

[sw3etpinay]

Oh I would like some feedback on this photo here if anyone does not mind!
DSC09050 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Skinnifatkid]

Personally, (I am no expert) I would crop the picture so the signs in the door were not there or photoshop them out. Nice picture, but the signs are distracting...to me at least.

[sw3etpinay]

Thank you for the feedback! I agree with the signs thing, attempting to edit them out right now.

[MTVision]

The signs are distracting but even without the signs I still don't like the background. If it was shot a little differently (without the door) it would've been nice. You could probably crop out the door (but you'd have to leave the green frame in the image, then apply a little gaussian blur to the background and maybe even change the green frame to white to match the rest. Not sure how it would look - just some ideas!

[Netskimmer]

If I paint my car red and put racing stripes on it, does that make it fast?

The red would make it look fast, or at least faster...

[Peano]

Oh I would like some feedback on this photo here if anyone does not mind!
DSC09050 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I like it. The white balance seems a bit cool in the shadows. I would warm that up and also open shadow details.