Photo Critiques? Lightroom edits

[maineiacjay]

So I just love Lightroom and the effects it can have in photography. Im no professional, I just snap away as a hobby. I enjoy capturing moments and sharing memories through photography.

I also love art in general and Lightroom gave me the ability to create scenes that werent there, and to apply effects to photos to give them a different feel. I try to keep things realistic, but sometimes I get colorful. there is a beach photo below that I went a little overboard on and I definitely could have done a better job on it, because it looks fake (to me), but I also think it looks cool, almost like a painting.

Id love some feedback on some of my favorite work. Not only the editing aspect, but also the photography aspects. Any ways I can improve my photography in general.

Right now, im using a Sony NEX-5N because both my Canon DSLR lenses no longer auto focus, which is fine with a tripod and a subject that doesnt move, but thats not really my type of subject... any ideas what could be wrong with them, that would be helpful too! :blushing:

(these photos belong to me and are from my hobby photography website and are watermarked because of that)

 

[D7K]

Some nice edit for me,

I do think, for me personally;

-2 is a little overdone losing some of the detail
-3 is a tad over saturated
-4 is a tad under saturated on the blacks, if not borderline
-5 Creative, but for me the sky does not work so well with the water..

Personal opinion of course, and there's some nice photo's there..

 

[maineiacjay]

thank you =) I dont do much with black and white, so that photo is a jump for me as well. on 4, I wanted to create a high contrast between the background and the thin strands of white from the milkweed but didnt want the background to be black, I wanted the brown to keep the color so it wouldnt turn into a black and white, but kept the focus on the plant. as for 5, it is a very highly unlikely photo and a clear edit, but it was quite fun to do and shows whats possible with photo edit. it was actually a very cloudy and stormy day and there was more gray than anything else and it was quite boring.

thanks for the critiques!!