This early morning
Is this a composite: No
Three filters have been used here: Nisi Landscape polarization and half gray medium 0.9 and Benro nd16 gray filter. Shutter speed half a minute. Nikon D750 / Tamron 17-35 Osd
Interesting contrast between the sharpness and texture in the rocks and the softness in the clouds. I like that the color of the rocks compliments the darker colors in the clouds and the color in the grasses compliments the orange in the clouds. Interesting composition with the rocks leading the eye through to settle on the sunrise.
If this shot is all about the sunrise, then the foreground becomes a bit superfluous. Since you went through all the trouble of setting up the ND filters, I have to believe the sunrise was important but not nearly so much as the lead in to the sunrise, thus my edit suggestion.
I made the lead in more dramatic using several selections, a lights mask and a selection with a screen blend mode, reduced significantly using mask brushing an opacity reduction. I also made a selection of the rock in the right lower quadrant and added a warming filter at 57%. I liked the effect of the warming filter on the rocks, I added one to the selection made in the sandy area.
My edit does not address your mind’s eye, thus it is just a suggestion and not to be construed as better, but just different.
Oh, and your horizon line was skewed a bit so I corrected it.
I very much like the image as presented, an d wouldn’t change a thing about it. I love the jagged shapes of the rocks, and your arrangement of these rocks does a great job of pulling the viewers eye through the scene. Great work on this image.
Another incredible image. I don’t know how I missed this one. The rocks are amazing.
