I prefer the first one. I think the background has been made too dark in the re-worked vesion and the lighting effect on the plant itself looks un-natural.
Hi Kris,
I had a go at the top picture, and after cloning out some side leaves, sharpening and
enhancing the colors a bit this was the result:
2m6o3df-2.jpg
It was pretty blown out on the darks, but some fill light helped.
Mike
That is a difficult image due to background problems and a rather shallow depth of field. If I wanted to save it, I would crop a lot closer to remove some of the problems then selectively adjust the brightness.
But to be honest, if it was my shot I would simply put this down to experience, and almost impossible exposures due to the camera angle; and therefore, I would bin it.
Hi Kris, I have often taken images like this to practice on in Photoshop so I think you are getting some very useful experience. It really helps us to think about how to get a better image when we are shooting while improving our post processing skills. In my opinion that's a smarter choice than simply tossing the image out!