Trash or try to save???

[ronlane]

The second one still has a lot of detail hidden in it because she looks underexposed. Bump up the exposure a stop or two and see. If that blows out the sun reflection behind her, just use the darkening brush to bring that area down.

That being said, I'm not crazy about the posing in that second one. It gives her a hunched over look.

I agree with the others on #1.

 

[Vautrin]

I assume you mean that the pictures are either over exposed or underexposed.

What camera are you use?

If you shoot in raw, with the right camera, you'd be amazed what you can do.

RAW, not the jpegs you posted.

All you basically need to do is adjust the exposure slider up or down Maybe increase the contrast slider.

The KEY question is, did you have clipping? Clipping means that the photos were so over / under exposed the raw file can't record color info (someone will probably be able to explain dynamic range better

Here's an example of my work. Before and after, showing you how you can go from way overexposed to normal (note the picture on the right is basically white!):

 

[janineh]

I edit with Paint the Moon actions. They could make the first pic amazing. Overseas atm, otherwise I would edit it for you.

Go to www.paintthemoon.net
And check out the luminousity sets

Good luck!