10 ways to enhance a better photographic outcome

1. Tell a story, refine the story, get rid of what does not enhance the story.
2. Level your horizons, level architecture, straighten square lines unless you want the slant, tilt and convergence to enhance your story. Do it with purpose.
3. Watch for “catches” in a photograph; things that your eye finds, maybe not at first, but once it does you cannot seem to stop noticing it. They almost always detract from the subject.
4. Look to the edges of the frame for things that lead you out of the frame and do not enhance the photo but keep pulling you out.
5. Sharpen a photograph, but only as much as needed and only where needed.
6. Look for and remove dust spots, then look again. Keep your sensor clean, but not always feasible. One trick I find is before you finish the photo, grab it in Photoshop and swirl it around with the mouse/pen a few times in tight circles. I find it easier to see dust, even subtle dust you may have missed. Another method is to increase the microcontrast – greatly. That will let them pop out like a sore thumb, then undo and clean up those areas. Nothing worse then seeing them after it is printed/shared/sold.
7. Not required, but a lot of photos can still be improved with a simple curves and/or levels adjustment.
8. Subtle selective color adjustments often work better than big global saturation adjustments.
9. Special effects, plug-ins, image enhancement tools should be used sparingly if you choose them and should generally help refine the story, enhance your style and allow you more control of vision. Applying them just because you have them is like using a bunch of fonts in a brochure because you have them. Fads come and go, but good photography stands on its own.
10. Let your art reflect your style, otherwise it my just look like everybody else. Appealing to the masses may just water down your potential.