Curiosity and constructive critiques desired :D

July 2nd, 2020
Hello!
I have been a 365 member for quite a long time, and my photography is improving little by little. I have been using LR exclusively and am not much of a Photoshop user (I need to take some classes). I took this photo yesterday and edited it in my usual way. I am curious how you might have processed it. I am open to constructive critique and willing to have it rendered in all sorts of ways. Just curious in your creativity and how to up mine! Have fun with it if you are willing. And if you have suggestions for me that you think are useful, have at it!! :) Thank you all in advance!

***PS...it is cropped


July 2nd, 2020
You've got a nice set up here, with the contrast between green and red, and a nice soft background. But at first glance, I feel like the bug is swimming in a sea of green, so I would probably crop in tighter. As for a quick edit, I would desaturate or darken some of that yellow damage just on the leaf, not the background) so it doesn't compete with the bright orange. Maybe darken the leaf just a tad, also and take out that tiny white dot that is distracting. (I don't use LR, so am not sure how it's done there. In Photoshop I create a duplicate layer, adjust in Adobe Camera Raw, the use a mask to limit the effect to the leaf only.)

July 2nd, 2020
@houser934 Thank you! It does look better without the yellow and cropped more. I was thinking that cropping it would help. And I didn't even see the white dot lol, but I do now!! Thank you very much for your help. It helps me to learn the things to look for! :)
January 21st, 2021
Firstly a great shot nicely focussed, for me colour and saturation should only be bumped a little and anomalies are nature so unless horrendous I would leave them in, your DoF is good so I would crop much tighter and lose around 2/3rds and really emphasise the bug
January 21st, 2021
@griff Thank you so much for your comments! I will give it a try!
January 22nd, 2021
@marylandgirl58 remember it's your picture and whatever please your eye should be first and foremost the rest of us are just opinions of our own style
February 4th, 2021
@griff Thank you!
March 20th, 2021
I am too much of a newbie to advise on editing but if you want to learn photoshop I have found a whole series of tutorials. If you google photoshop essentials you should find them. I open up a tutorial in browser and switch back and forth to photoshop to follow every step. Hope this is useful
March 24th, 2021
@brianm thank you so much for the information!
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