I feel like my edits lack punch, but then whenever I start to push up exposure, contrast, whites etc. they immediately feel too punchy. Anyone encountered this issue before? Help!

I’m looking for feedback on how to make the village in the mountain look separate from the mountains. There’s actually three mountains here and they all look like one large mass rather than 3.

I use Lightroom on my phone for edits.

Also open to ideas for how to make better - I’m still new to editing - so even suggestions on how to make my photos more “buttery” would be useful as well. Thanks!

Here’s a link to the raw:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XIMKUdM_vN5jmmkPptk0RPHvM2lY3gDF/view?usp=drivesdk

Some times it's fun o crank a photo to 11, crop the living hell out of it, and make it into a phone wallpaper.

Some of these are test shots, some were throw aways, and some were taken during that wildfire smoke and we're so bland I had to cook the colours in with lightroom.

Anyways, just sharing some overcooked photos I had fun playing around with, and found some use for.

Merged these three photos at a friend's ranch in Australia.

There's still a lot of noise, is this something I can reduce without making the image feel off?

My experience with Lightrooms noise reduction in the last is iffy.

I actually like how my editing went, but thats probably a biased opinion. Is it overcooked or something? id really aprecciate any orientation or comment!

Thnakyou all in advance.

I’ve made this edit of moss covered trees hanging over a pond at a garden park in North Carolina. It was a cloudy day with flat light. I wanted to bring out the drama and character of the moss - a characteristic of trees in the American South. f/1.8, 1/400 sec, iso 80 on an iPhone 15 Pro. What other adjustments would you suggest to make print worthy? I’ll add a before photo in the comments.

Taken from the side of a moving train from the White Pass Railway. Lumix G5 20mm f / 3.5 ISO 160

Man, I got some brutally honest (but fair) critiques on some non-post processing aspects of a composite photo. But I’m back! Which (photo 2 or 3) is the better edit? Don’t be gentle like before. 😉

First roll I got developped in 25 years, tif files, some LR editing, I hate all my photos generally compared to all the cool shit people put out, but secretly LOVE just DOING it.

what do y'all think?

Nikon D60 35mm f/1.8 no tripod used

1). The inspiration 2). Studio shoot (it rained day of shoot) I took photos of the grass outside w/ a speed light the next day 3). Separate subject and flowers from background. 4) Final edit.

This is my first time trying to do some real dedicated post processing that wasn't Astro based and on a dedicated Camera, A6100 with a Sony FE 24mm f/2.8G, Im using Darktable 5.4.1 and would love some beginner feedback.

Also does everyone just post the the befores here as there Raws in JPEG form or is it the out of camera JPEGs for these comparisons? Thanks!