I'm a total amateur. I went to Verona, Italy a couple of weeks ago. I was just taking photos of random stuff that I thought might be interesting and especially to improve my composition. So I wasn't necessarily shooting memories.. But when I took the photos off of my camera it turned out that I don't like any of the photos I took. Not to think about my lousy composition but I realised that subjects I decided to shoot were just plain dull.
And it turns out I take a mix of pictures. Some landscapes, some architecture and some portraits... Chaos I know. I've read many guides about composition and I've improved even though I often get it completely wrong.
My wife is also some small magazine editor and I can say in general that she doesn't like my photos at all. And hence I became more and more demanding of myself. But still. I don't really know what am I doing wrong.
So help me
How should I decide what's worth taking a picture? And how much time is worth spending on capturing a shot that will be worth keeping?
Example
These are two photos that I at least like. First one because of the composition and the kind of doors I'd like to have at home, and the second one because the colourful wall is interesting. Of course both are post processed.
And this one is completely unaltered. Somehow interesting but the subject doesn't really stand out.
And one (original + altered) that I don't like at all. I wanted to capture the city hall with the old arena and then I got so easily distracted by this coach... Put it in the middle, because I started shooting fast because I obviously didn't have much time... Anyway. A completely unaltered one with a rotated + cropped + curves post processed photos:
Edit
I edited the Venetian mask as suggested. I overexposed mask by 1/2 and underexposed background by 1/2. Added some light on left+up pointing surfaces and added some shadow on the opposite site. Also blurred background a bit more. This was fast done, but you can get judgemental.
original underneath for comparison
