Photoshop Decisions

My piece that I have been making for Wintersession is almost done. In fact, everything is done except for the finishing. I have had trouble making a decision on whether or not to paint the metal elements or leave them as steel. And if I do decide to paint, what color to use. Since I had the piece partially assembled my instructor suggested taking a photo and manipulating it in Photoshop (a powerful, and popular, image-editing software) to try out some of the options.

Original Photo

Edited Photo

Lest you think Photoshop is not all it is cracked up to be I should state that I am by no means an expert, nor in this case was I trying to be. You get the idea though. I was able to get a vague idea of what the piece would look like without having to waste a bunch of time and money actually testing the physical piece.