Edited photograph of floral piece

It may be of little interest to those familiar with the properties of photo editing software that someone like myself would get excited experimenting with it.  Sorry, can't help myself!  Anyway, the prospect of making real adjustments to work seems pretty exciting to me.  I like the idea that technology can show me alternatives.  Maybe it just means that I've got a really limited imagination!  Here's the original image.....which actually fairly represents the actual painting and below is the toned-up version made possible by editing software.  So, yes I'm going to tone up the piece.
Cheater?