It looks to me that you simply don't have enough light in the first photo.
And while its possible to do amazing things in Elements (or any other photoshop for that matter), it would probably be easier to rectify it
before you need to digitally enhance it, rather than afterwards.
I don't know about anyone else, but I always find really altered photos slightly 'uncanny' and it leaves me wondering why…?
While I always try and take my photos in natural light, I also use a lightbox, with a 100w bulb on either side of the box.
Even then, sometimes I need to bring in another lamp to get that diffuse, slightly luminous 'natural light' look. Glass is particularly hard to photograph, because its specularity is so high that unless you shield your light sources well, you're going to end up with reflections and flare off of it.
Basically, you always need waaay more light than you think you do