Shoot and Edit: Week One (Edits)

I'm not quite sure how to layout these photos to show the edits.  I have to figure out the roll over trick I keep seeing around.  I'm also noticing that somewhere between Photoshop and this blog, the images look different.  I guess the point is, I DID IT.  Thank you again for these great tutorials...I have no idea that there were layers for modifying images.  I've only used layers for well, layers of things not layers of edits.  I followed the tutorials pretty much along the instructions.  And I'm sending this out there not really perfect because I want to just keep working and practicing, not belaboring minor details (which is hard for me!).

Example #1:  On here, the original looks better, but I swear that IN Photoshop they both looked different.  I am suspecting that the watermark is altering the images...I'll have to work on that.  I was trying to ultimately show the people in the background, and better capture the reality of the light that day.  I have a tendency to edit to make things moody or contrasty.  I want to go back and fix the second one.  Bleck.  EDIT:  I tried to fix the image, it still doesn't work.

Original

Nah, still doesn't work...

Example #2:  I am sure there is no way I could have equally enhanced this image without the layers.  Now I just need to figure out how to retain the glowy look.  But the second one is sharp, clean.  I like it.  I think one of the layers is too opaque, I could minimize that.  EDIT:  I added the fixed image below.

Original

Warmed up image

Example #3:  I completely screwed this one up on first go, over-exaggerating the white balance inadvertently when playing with color levels.  I could never quite figure out how to fix the image the way I wanted to.  I love how the icicle itself looks, and the detail of the ceiling, but I'm not so keen on the bottom of the image.  Is it okay to burn in the bottom?  (There is a bad joke there somewhere, sorry!)  EDIT:  I added the image with burn. 

Original

Added burn to bottom of image