<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeyballs/2409722507/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2061/2409722507_0e9124e249_b.jpg" alt="GSU students miming it up" /></a>

not that you have to have realistic rendering but hicon images are a tough sell unless your photo warrants that look. Not everything works.

people have a tendency to crush the tones because it creates dramatic results and makes the photo appear richer.

try to dissect the photo into areas that you want to emphasize and those that you want to de-emphasize and selectively adjust for those areas.

Easy to do if you have Photoshop using transparency of adjustment layers and layer masks.

It's like frisket for airbrushing.

I'd like to see the changes you suggest...

...someone had to say it