Need help with these particular shots

[Cat_rice Photography]

Hi guys! I've been doing this photography thing for about a year now, but i'm still behind as to the post editing portion of the photography game. I've gotten accustomed to gimp photo editing program (due to the broke college student paycheck, i can't afford photoshop right now) and messing with editing and such, but it's getting to the point where i'm taking somewhat good shots, but my lack of post-editing knowledge is holding me back, especially with landscapes. I need help especially with these shots post-editing wise. I shoot with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i

Glacier picture here are the specs: ISO 200, 18mm, F/14 under cloudy conditions (it was raining most of the time).

For the lake picture: again under cloudy conditions as u could see.

Post editing goals: for the Glacier picture, I really wanna make the glacier itself pop because that is the focal point of the that picture, but not sacrifice the background that compliments it.

For the lake picture, I want to aim for an HDR kind of look, but because of the cloudy sky and the use of gimp, its tricky.

Overall, I'm sort of stuck to which direction I should take when editing these photos. Any help is welcomed and much needed! thanks!!

 

[Jasii]

I have yet to touch PS/LR hence cannot help you much on the processing front. All I can say is the locale looks great. The WB is off (the snow looks greyish blue) I guess this must have been done to generate the oomph factor, however so close to the glaciar and the snow being the main ingredient here, it would be tricky to process this one .
I would have attempted this slightly wider and lower with emphasis on the human elements and let the bg fill up the rest. Also it would look a nice shot with a tele zoom at say 120mm with the mountain bringing up the rear. Using an ND and taking a long exposure would have generated more details too, provided the human elements were made to stay very still.
Jasii

 

[Cat_rice Photography]

I have yet to touch PS/LR hence cannot help you much on the processing front. All I can say is the locale looks great. The WB is off (the snow looks greyish blue) I guess this must have been done to generate the oomph factor, however so close to the glaciar and the snow being the main ingredient here, it would be tricky to process this one .
I would have attempted this slightly wider and lower with emphasis on the human elements and let the bg fill up the rest. Also it would look a nice shot with a tele zoom at say 120mm with the mountain bringing up the rear. Using an ND and taking a long exposure would have generated more details too, provided the human elements were made to stay very still.
Jasii

Thank you so much for the advice! I now have a better idea of what to look for in future shots! The glacier is actually blue due to the nature aspect (which I can't really explain), it wasn't the camera that made that. I just happened to capture it.