| Looking at the initial 2 photos, to me the left photo looks slightly unnaturally high in contrast & saturation to my eyes, at least on my monitor. The right photo, while high in contrast and saturation, looks more natural. The 2nd set of photos both look unnatural to me. So if you want a 'natural' look, I think you have gone past that point with 3 of the 4.
Having said that, none of this really means anything, depending on what you want out of your images. While I usually prefer photos that fairly accurately depict the scene as I saw them (and that is probably the case with your friend as well), that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with creating images that are altered to the point of having an 'unnatural' look to them. I'm rarely a fan of heavy altering of photos as it becomes something other than 'photography' at some point, but some excess contrast and saturation is relatively minor stuff if that's the look you're after. I think with the 2 photos here, the high saturation and contrast works fine, the first two look better to me but there isn't a right or wrong and I don't think you've PP'd to the point of making your photos look 'bad'.
I do see some people that post images where they overdo most of their images in contrast, saturation, and sharpness to the point where they have a terribly unnatural look to them. At that point, I think they're doing an injustice to many of their own photos, but again if that's what they want... |