Recent vacation pics - C&C please!

[thevideographer]

Hey everyone. I just got back from vacation and took a look at some of the photos I got with my new D5100. I shot in RAW then selected the picture management type (neutral, vivid, etc), adjusted the exposure slightly, and perfected the white balance on my computer. Overall they came out decent but something about them doesn't look quite right to me. Does anyone have some suggestions to improve on these types of shots? All of my night time and low light shots look good to me but ironically the bright daytime shots just look - - off. I'm not sure if it is the composition, exposure, or something I'm doing wrong in post. Here are a couple of examples.

Low light, food picture. Pretty good looking to me:


Bright daylight. Something looks wrong - did I overexpose it or mess up in editing?


Another one:


Just for fun (shot on 35mm):

 

[SamiJoSchwirtz]

Last one,

+1

 

[The_Traveler]

The first is too dark to see well and looks like mixed lighting so a true color balance may be impossible.


the next two are just routine color shots of a tropical environment. Great for personal shots but not much beyond that.

The last one has good sharpness, color rendition etc but there is an obvious tilt and you cut off the base of the glasses.

 

[thevideographer]

Thanks. The one of the dessert is interesting to me because the purple and blue was the actual lighting at that restaurant.

 

[gw2424]

The last one is the only one that really appeals to me. The food picture's white balance is 100% off (intentional or not). It had potential but the white balance killed it. "Another One" just looks like an accidental picture. It may be interesting if there was a better subject in the background. Bright Daylight's composition is good but the wheelbarrow takes away from the "Tropical Paradise" factor.

My 2 cents.

GW

 

[Frequency]

Yesss, i too fall for the last one....