Trying out photo-editing - but failed

I have done already many courses about photography, which included good practices, lens, settings, framing and more. (Of course you can never stop learning photography, when it is a passion, you know that you just cant help learning and experimenting as time goes by)

But one thing I have not yet mastered (and I have not yet paid much attention, or took lessons) is ...

.
.

Editing!

I know that there are many apps that are online, or even pure AI that do the photo editing.
But I do not want it to be done easily.

Here you see a first effort of my editing.
I am not experienced, but I already see some mistakes.

I created a preset in RapidRaw (free editing software similar to Lightroom here a post about it)

I wanted to have bright blue, similar to what the eye sees
It kind of seems ok when you dont see the sand, but when you see sand...

I think that sand is too vivid and the color should be 'sandier'

This photo is a bit blurred, but I liked it!

I just could not leave the sea on that day!
I think I must have more than 100+ photos

I also now want to show you an example of a photo that I asked from chatgpt to fix for me

You may see the colors and brightness, yes there is a difference
But you see the size and quality first of all and then..
If you zoom in the AI edited one, you do not see the whole athlete on the sky. He misses his board and a whole lot of details.

This is almost 200% zoomed in, you see how much of a caricature the left (AI) edited image is.

If you are into photography, I would love to know your opinion on .. where to start learning or any tips that you can share.

Thank you very much for your time and tips.

ie. If you would like to see some ...action in live!

I will try to upload more videos, so if you sign up to me, I ll sign up to you and share more content soon!