Mike, thanks for showing your edit. I did a very similar edit this afternoon and I do prefer the crop with more space above the glasses. When you adjusted the curve did you do this on the whole image or just the glasses? Comparing this to what I did today, the glasses in this one look much better than what I came up with.
Mike did with the shot what i would have badly tried to suggest. There are so many layers in this shot that could be brought out. Fabulous concept.
When you adjusted the curve did you do this on the whole image or just the glasses?
I applied the curve to the entire image. If I remember correctly, I pulled down the left side just a bit to darken the dark tones and lowered the white point to brighten the bright tones. Doing so also increased the contrast in the mid tones a little.