How to make a picture "pop out"

[izso]

I've been fiddling around with CS5 for ages and cannot seem to liven up this picture. It's currently my pride and joy for panning shots but it's very less than interesting.

Can someone assist me and give guidelines on what you did to make it 'pop' out?

IMG_0416.JPG

[chiewkit]

How's this?

Untitled-1.jpg

[izso]

That's interesting.. so essentially what you did was crop?

[chiewkit]

Crop & add a bit of motion blur~ did slight dodge & burn also~

[gshot]

here is my try.
edited_by_gregemmanuel.jpg

[ShaolinTiger]

It's a pretty good shot IMHO, nothing much to be done.

drift.jpg

I just did:

1) Crop (usually when you wanna show motion, don't put the subject in the middle - put it to the left of the picture and leave some space to the right).
2) Adjust contrast
3) Sharpen
4) Adjust shadow/highlight a little
5) Add vignette

That's all!

[izso]

Thanks guys! Great feedback!

[tools4fools]

1. wide crop
car2.jpg

1) wide crop as the speed asks for it; on top I did not like the green/white/black part of the top, too much contrast there.

2) lowered saturation of green in fence, distracts less from main subject

3) upped contrast and saturation of orange color

4) slight darken of blacks and upped contrast, on car only, wheels and interior protected to keep detail there.

5) brightened interior of car and drivers face a bit, lowered saturation of drivers face as it was redish when brightened (more detail could be recovered if this would be RAW file).

6) sharpen, on the car only

7) added black frame

I usually work on partial parts of image only using Nikons colour points. Allows for more control where you apply changes - in a fast and easy way.
+++++

[izso]

Nice.. thanks a bunch!