Rock the vote

I just ran a few of my Mother's Day gift actions from MCPActions.com on this picture, and I have to say, I like it better. You can't see it, since I have to upload these within Blogger parameters, which means small, but after darkening the lighter background and lightening Pepe's face a little, especially his eyes, it seems to enhance the overall look and accent the depth of field to me. I dunno. I just wish he hadn't been wearing a dang dark brown shirt. and sitting next to the black piano bench. But the mess was where and when it was, which prompted the picture in the first place. It's all about location.

I know I'm going to look back on these pictures in five years and think how utterly clueless I was about retouching in Photoshop. They'll be embarrassing first tries, like a fifth grade art project that your mom shows all your adult friends. "My, she certainly was a fan of, uh, color, wasn't she?" Ack.

You'll have to be the judges. Which picture is better, the first one (the one in the last post, not quite straight out of the camera, but close) or the above computer-enhanced second one?

I eagerly await your opinions!