While on my usual trip around webland looking at all things photographic, I do this daily to keep up to date with what is going on and to get inspiration for my own work, I stumbled across the following site.
This is a great example of why and what you need to do to move your images onto the next stage and take them from just being photos of people to being completed images that stand out from the normal.
What is refreshing about this site is that they show you the finished images and by hovering your mouse cursor over the shot, it shows you the photo, completely un-touched and as they were shot. You'll be able to see how much work has actually gone into some of the shots while if you didn't know you would probably not know the extent of the processing.
Glenn Feron - The Art of Retouching
I hope you find it at least interesting...