Help in Post Processing Wanted!

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jedidiah81

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Name
Tom
Edit My Images
Yes
I am new to Photography in the last few months, and really enjoying my new hobby! I am just getting to grips with post-processing in Lightroom / Photoshop, and read a few books, but still a long way to go and lots to learn of course.
I took some nice shots of the cherry blossom in the local park recently, and I would like to get a print of one of them. I played about with it for several hours in Lightroom yet still finding it really hard to determine what adjustments I should be making .. I know in many ways this is subjective, but I would really appreciate help from anyone with more experience who would be willing to show me what they would do to it! My main problem is lighting up the shadowed area of the blossom without making the rest of the photo too light. I have tried a Gradulated Filter, but this makes the top of the trees a bit light too.
If you might be able to help, please let me know, and I will provide the RAW file!
Here is the photo in question:
 
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It looks like quite an attractive image as-is if I'm being quite honest!
The biggest challenge to learning PS is to decide what it is you want to do with it which, I think, is the problem you're bumping into here. Its like sitting down with a huge pile of clay and not knowing what to sculpt.

Perhaps it might be worthwhile having a browse around Flickr or 500px to have a look at other images you like the look of to give you a target towards which you can push this image?
 
im not entirely sure what areas or why you would want to lighten it up. one of the key aspects in photography is light and dark. it defines the areas in the picture , how many times have you seen a dark wooded shot that has glorious light coming through the leaves and branches and onto the pathways. its the difference that gives the image a sense of depth too rather than making it look flat and dull.
your photo has some lovely dappled light across the floor , if anything i would probably go the opposite and actually make it a touch more contrasty and bring the light down just a fraction. ( d also probably clone out the sign and person in the background too but thats just me.!
to give an idea hope you dont mind but had a little play with your image to show what i mean.View attachment 37698

could be totally off the mark of what your looking for but just one example

hmm looks like the upload option compression has casued some rather garish issues..and looks very little like the adjusted large file
 
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@Denyerec .. thanks for your reply, yes that is my problem, I have looked at other photos, but when you are new to image editing, and particularly when you don't have a natural aptitude for visualising that type of thing, it is still very hard to apply that and what the different possibilities as to what one 'can do' with it!
 
@dean messenger .. thank you very much! I was just looking for any examples of what other people might do with it, and yeah you are right it definitely looks better to me taking advantage of the light like you have done. I know it is probably obvious to you, but for me as a beginner it is not easy to see those things. I meant by 'light' the top area with the blossom, but that looks fine in the image you uploaded.
I have uploaded the RAW file to https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B975Sa67YyRbQzF5NFlsdHNqVlE&usp=sharing .. if at all possible I would be really grateful if you were able to make those quick adjustments to that, so I could have a base to work off? No worries if not though, as I can have a go at reproducing what you have done if necessary.
best, Tom
 
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