The Trouble With Editing Photos Is...

I can't make up my mind!  Too many choices and options and small nuances.


Here's an example:

 

This is straight out of the camera.  It's admittedly a little on the dark side, but I still like it.

This is what I would consider a fairly straight forward edit.  I didn't really do much other than brighten it a bit, sharpen, and add a little more color so it's not so drab.

Noticeably edited.  Bright colors, and a warmer tone overall.  Not really the direction I initially wanted to go in, but it kind of works for a different concept.

A B&W conversion.  This is more of what I had in mind.  I wish I could have gotten the highlights on the tree branches in the foreground a little brighter to show more of the trees' texture without making the fog too bright, but I couldn't figure that out.  

Oh and just for some more fun, here's an infrared conversion.  I wish I could do infrared on my camera, but I think I have to physically have to alter the camera to do that, so I don't see that happening any time soon.  For now I'll just play with the filter in photoshop.  I also cropped this in tighter, which I think works for this.

 So my problem is...  Well first off, I really need to learn how to edit properly.  As of now I just click a bunch of options, slide things until they look "right" and call it a day.  But also, I think that once I start editing again I'm going to have to force myself to be more intentional about what I want the end result to be.  And I'm definitely still trying to figure that out.

Also, my apologies to the people who have been reading my blog for a long time and are now subjected to nonstop photos.  I'll try to get back to other subjects again soon :)