Hi EgĂdio, good morning!
This is a wonderful grand vista, there’s lots of interesting elements that most of us would be very excited to capture.
I worked on this image with a few different crops, as well as adjustments in shadow details, color balance and color temperature, and it kept coming back to the example crop and edits shown below.
The balance between the sky, mountains and FG was an issue in my mind, the sky seems to be little too prominent IMHO. If the sky could speak to the mountains, it would say something like: "Ha, I’m bigger than you are, and…I’m brighter than you are, I bet you that everybody is going to pay more attention to me than they do you! "
One concern I had was keeping the mountains sloped downward at the left and right sides of the frame (as you have in the original composition), fortunately, this one worked in our favor by the “V” shape just to the right of center, that was the perfect spot to crop to IMHO.
My next concern was the taller, wide bush just right of center in the original composition, it seemed to be too prominent as well. By cropping it as shown, that bush was basically cut in half and seemed to blend in with the right side of the frame, and with the area of the FG on the left where it juts out, that seemed to help with offsetting any balancing concerns I had but that is only my personal opinion.
Note: The luminance of the bush on the right probably should be brought down a little more (I should have done that while I was at it ).
The next edit was to change the color temperature of the shadows at and on the mountain, they are pretty blue looking, and to me, a little too bright, in my mind they should have the same color temperature as the side receiving the golden sunlight, and while maintaining the details, the exposure should be brought down just enough to maintain the shadow look that we expect to see in real life.
The next edit was to bring out some details in the FG bushes (trees?), but not make the bushes brighter, to accomplish this, I masked the dark areas using a brush with a large feather amount, then brought up the shadows some, lowered the highlights all the way, and lowered the exposure (using the same mask).
The highlights were still too bright so I created another mask to further reduce the highlights, I specifically targeted the brightest spots so I could lower the luminosity enough to make it all blend together somewhat evenly.
And finally, the color temperature of the clouds and the sky seemed to be at odds with the golden light seen on the mountains.
To me, the color temperature of the clouds and the sky should have a slightly warmer tone that forms a sense of continuity with the mountains.
When the sun is low in the sky, the atmosphere blocks the blue light from the sun and leaves us with a yellow/red (golden) color, the clouds and sky should have that same golden color cast IMHO.
The clouds and sky presented in your original composition are really awesome, there just seems to be a little too much of it for this particular composition.
The entire mountain range shown is awesome as well, but the area between just right of center to the right side of the frame doesn’t seem to have the same feel as the left side in terms of luminosity.
I know you said that the intensity of the yellow luminance of the mountains on the left was something you weren’t too fond of, just curious here, could that have been only in comparison to the right side?
The main reason I chose to crop down to the left side was that the left side had quite a bit more interesting shapes, shadows and depth when compared to the right side, but all of this is merely my personal take on this wonderful composition.
You can certainly, completely ignore this crop and edit idea without hurting my feelings!
Or, maybe this may spark an optional idea of your own?
Final notes:
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The cropped version has the same basic overall feel as the original in regards to the shape of the mountains at the sides of the frame.
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I tried to recreate the same frame around the image so they would have that same look when comparing your original to the cropped and edited versions, the frame isn’t exact but maybe close enough?
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And, this has nothing to do with what I like or what I want personally, but it does have everything to do with suggestions for improvements of your vision or goal in your original composition.
I’ve included your original composition, a cropped and edited version with the sky color temperature left as you presented it in the original and a cropped and edited version with the sky color temperature pushed to +20 (in ACR but it should be the same in Lr).
(I hope I didn’t forget to write something, as I often do )
Edit: I knew I was forgetting something! – During my considerations for cropping, I wanted to make sure I kept the original aspect ratio, especially since this is intended to be a screen-saver.
Warmest regards,
Original (below).
Cropped and edited with original color temperature in the sky (below)
Cropped and edited with color temperature in the sky warmed to +20 (below)