Continuing to learn something new

My multi-month exile from physical activity has brought out this desire in me to learn something new! Action photography has long been on the list of my things to get good at. In the process, I have come to learn that action photography is not only about capturing dramatic moments.. but it is also about processing the picture well enough to ensure that the drama in the moment is evident to the viewer!
Some of the things I've come to learn in the process is
a) Always shoot with very small Depth Of Focus (DOF). This blurs away most of the distracting elements in the foreground and background. Gives you a decent picture to start working with for post-processing. I shoot in the Aperture priority mode these days with the lowest F stop supported by my lens.
b) Shoot in mult-shot / burst mode so that at least one of the frames will actually capture the dramatic moment. You don't have to be worried about timing your clicking finger with the perfect moment. However, having said this, I'd say that even timing the multi-shot mode is an art.. and I'm still trying to get it right!
c) Crop the picture mercilessly! Anything that is not the main subject can be taken away, unless it adds to the story. Don't worry about maintaining aspect ratios on your cropping! Just go chop-chop-chop!
d) Increasing contrast/saturation can add to some of the dramatic visual effect
e) Equalizing can have some interesting effects
f) off-late I'm learning to use layers to edit. Here are some interesting effects from my learnings.
My favourite is picture no. 1. (No.3 is the original). What's yours?







Thanks to Miao for helping me get started on Layers..