Am I editing the right way?

[ostinoh]

Hello -

I have just started using off and on over the past year and I really like it but I always seem to spend so much time editing my pictures. I thought maybe someone can help me and tell me if I'm doing the right thing and adjustments. I have attached the two I just fixed in LightRoom 5 and their originals.

Any thoughts to these would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
David

Fixed:

 

[bobrobert]

This is a matter of taste. I think you are going in the right direction but imo they are cropped a little too tight. If you feel you have to crop tightly it is in order to crop out distractions in the background. If there aren't any distraction then a looser crop would imo be better?

 

[clee01l]

Welcome to the forum.
As bobrobert says, it is a matter of taste. I like the tight crops. I think it works well. I see no specific complaints on either of these two photos. You do not submit RAW images here so I suspect you did not shoot RAW. LR can do more with RAW files than with JPEGs that have already been processed once in the camera. You do not as specific questions about the LR adjustment tools. So, this really is not a critique about your Lightroom skill, although I think you have mastered the shadow adjustments nicely.

If it is a critique about technique and LR craft, you might be better served submitting your photos to a group devoted to Photo Critique. Here is a link to a Flickr Critique group. I participate in it and I have learned a lot there about camera settings, composition, lighting, post processing craft and LR techniques to achieve better photos.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/photographycritique/discuss/

 

[ostinoh]

Thank you for the responses. The last pictures I took for that day were RAW and I could see how much more I could do them. In the picture which was taken as RAW I adjusted the setting to what I think is good. But what adjustment could I do to help remove or lighten the shadow on his face. Am I not using the correct settings I attached those as well.

Thanks,
David