Ah ok. I thought what you posted was the original. IMO, you did a pretty good job of modifying it from what you just posted. I usually go with 3 main ingredients to touching up a photo. Since you dont have PS, you might not have some of these. Keep in mind too that these three things come from the fact that I am a Graphic Communications major, so everything I do is an attempt to get it to print, in whatever process correctly. 1. Levels - Make your light and dark points consistent with the photo. See how I brought the slider over to the left in the light area of the levels dialogue. 2. Curves - make the curves match what type of photo you have (high key, low key etc.) Here, the cures were pretty good. Since this is a pretty low key photo though, I bumped up the low end of the curve to bring out the shadows. 3.Unsharp Mask - this will bring out detail. Use it sparingly though so you dont create halos around objects. Also as a side point...NEVER use the sharpening tool...unless you are trying for a specific effect. To enhance detail, always use unsharp mask. No unsharp masking With unsharp masking
