I can't decide which one is better

[Verb]

Help!! I can't decide which one I prefer, I'm leaning towards the latter

This one which is edited in Photoshop:


Or this one that I put through photomatix:


Opinions please

[Forseti]

For me the second although I'm sure you could have achieved the same effect in Photoshop.

[picsfor]

You could have achieved the same effect in LR as well as Photoshop.
Given your earlier comments re an angry man - i would go with the second because it conveys a darker and so more menacing perspective.

[Verb]

I know I could have achieved the same effect in LR or Photoshop, it's just I used Photomatix to do it lol 

Thanks guys 

[ABERS]

Just to be awkward, the top head would have looked better on the bottom body.
The top body is too light and dominates the overall scheme of things, and the bottom head loses too much detail detail in the shadows at the left side.

[Graham]

   For me, the second one, but I would do a square crop of the top end as I find the gent's cardigan a bit of a distraction.
               Like the pic though.   Graham.

[Verb]

I think you may be right Graham, thanks

[SimonW]

Difficult! I agree the original has too much cardigan, but take the square shot with a little more off each side and (ignoring the exposure) you get a perfect passport photo. Probably not the effect you wanted.

I've got three RAW processors - Silkypix came with the camera (Pentax), Paint Shop Pro and Adobe, and they all appear to give differing results. They all do a good job though their tools are quite different, and I can't say I prefer the results from any particular one. I've tried several times, for interest's sake, to reproduce the exact appearance of a photo "developed" in one of them with the same RAW file in one of the others, without success.

If we're voting on the originals my own preference is for the top one because it's slightly lighter.