Bee on a Thistle

Different Edits

For a long time I was trying to get comfortable editing pictures to look as natural as possible, while still improving them. But recently, I've come to the point where I feel comfortable enough with my editing and photography to try and make stylistic choices. For now I just want to focus on color, without adding new textures or anything in photoshop. I think the color can really effect the mood of the shot so here I will compare two edits and ask you to tell me what you think.

This is my creative version of the photo you'll find below. I choose to darken the photo substantially and oversaturate some of the colors to create the feel of an ambiguous light source. I also used tone splitting to change the colors of the highlights and lowlights everywhere except on the top of the thistle and the bee. This effect brought out some unnatural reds and blues in the photo in the hopes of creating a somewhat psychedelic look. In addition to these effects I made slight adjustments to the color of the top of the thistle and to the contrast and saturation.

Here is the natural version of the photo for comparison:

Anyway, thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!