Welcome to NPN, David. These are just my personal opinions and others my differ. I like the processing and the sky looks great but to my eye the composition is a little off. If this is a arch, I feel you should have included at least a little of the top. Also I feel the comp is a little right heavy and cuts off some of the bg rock formations which are a focal point. Maybe a little move to the left to center the formations in the opening.
My opinion does not differ much from Michael’s except I think including the whole top to frame the distant beautiful view would be better. Not sure if this is a crop, the lens used, or if you could step back far enough to accomplish it. Otherwise, this is a very fine image. Thank you for contributing.
It’s definitely an unusual composition, and I think that may be why it seems off to some people. It works for me though. It’s very unusual nature keeps me interested and wanting to see it over and over again. My only subjective nit is that if it were my photo I would not have darkened the sky that much. Overall a fascinating beautiful photo.
Welcome to NPN David,
Your first post is quite interesting to me as well. I am not as concerned about the lack of the perceived arch in the top of the frame, in fact I find that interesting. For me the issue is the right side of the image does feel a bit heavy. I also would prefer a slightly less blue sky, but that is just my preference. Thank you for such a thought provoking first post and we hope to see contributing more to our community.
I couldn’t resist reworking your photo. I used Content-Aware Fill to extend the rock on the left, slightly cropped off some of the rock on the right, and lightened the blues in the sky.
Welcome to NPN David, this is a great first post. Not only are the clouds wonderful, I really like your unusual treatment of using arches as a framing element within the scene. It’s an unique composition. The processing of exposure, contrast and color looks spot on to me.
I do agree with @Michael_Lowe that the composition feels slightly heavy on the right. But i think the rework by @Tony_Siciliano does a very effective job of creating a better sense of balance in the composition.
@Michael_Lowe raises the question of including a little bit of the top of the arch (assuming it exists). To me there is a related issue, the large amount of empty blue sky at the top center of the image. I wish there was less of this blue sky here. So here is another suggestion for a rework. I started with Tony’s rework and cropped a slice away from the top.
