Following up on critique

Hi @Ian Plant (and anyone else who might wish to comment). I really appreciated your critique of this image in your first critique session. I finally had a chance to go back to the photo and try to address your comments and suggestions. You had mentioned that the original photo (which I included at the bottom of the post for your reference) was unbalanced between the sky and foreground and suggested brightening the sky and darkening the foreground. You also pointed out a fringe along the right side where the dark rocks met the bright sky.

In the new version at the top of this post, I brightened the sky and darkened the foreground in Lightroom, trying to achieve a better balance. I also cooled down the shadows a little bit to add to the feeling of contrast between foreground and sky. I took care of the fringe along the rocks in Photoshop, and also cloned out an area of lens flare on the large rock in the top right that I thought was distracting. FYI, this wasn't a blending of multiple exposures, it's a single exposure. The fringe became apparent when I brought up the shadows and brought down the highlights in Lightroom.

I'd love to know if these changes have adequately addressed your comments. I tried to keep the tonal changes modest, but would be interested to know if you would take it further.

Thanks,

Jeff