Im just playing around with this raw photo, and wondering which one you think looks best

or


As you can see it was a rather stormy day, and the lighting conditions weren't very good. Those waves are almost 4' high there I'm glad that I wasn't on a boat in that.

[Tom Lusk]

I like the first a lot better- more natural!

[Adam]

I like the second a bit more, but it's too dark to look real.

[little laker]

Thanks, personally I like the land on the first one better, but the water in the second one better.

If I could learn that photoshop thing I'd be set

[Photo Tramp]

The first is more natural, and the second the saturation is off and the highlights are blown. In fact the first one would be better with warmer colors I think that might give you back the highlights that are blown.
If you have a regular PC and not a mac Try and download Picasa. It is a free download and you will find it a lot more simple then photoshop, but you can get the feel of tuning, and saturation changes, and what sharpening effects do to a photo. And then try to get the same effects with photoshop. First thing is to learn what makes your picture better, and what causes the picture to be bad. You can see the changes in Picasa and are able to undo all your changes easier then photoshop.
I guess what I'm realy trying to say is Photoshop takes more understanding of all aspects of printing and photography then Picasa does. I've been working in Photoshop for about a year and I'm so far away from mastering the program it's not funny. what it all boils down to in both programs is you correct any image until it starts to look bad to you then back up a little and you have it.
remember Color, Saturation, Midtones, Highlights, and shadows, they are what you have to master first.
Good shooting.
Cheers: David

[foxglove]

The first one looks more natural. The sky seems wrong somehow in the second, and that lovely glassy-ness is gone in the water. What I've done in similar situations (flat sky) is convert from raw getting everything else looking about right (as you have in the first one) and then done selective levels adjustments to the sky to make it more dramatic. You could do other adjustments to just the beach, or the water, to "fake" the DR of your eyes. I'm still just learning photoshop, but it's amazing what you can accomplish with just a few of the basic tools! Adjustment layers are amazing - you can turn the effect on and off, alter it... in other words, waste even more time!

Julie