What can I do to improve this

[abhi]

This is an old sunrise shot from a trip last year. I keep going back to this but always end up feeling that I am unable to achieve a good balance between the ground/sky, boats/sand etc. Finally, I have one version I think I am happy with. Your thoughts? What can I do to improve it?



Here's the original SOOC image:



PS: Been a little hectic this week. Plan to be catching up this weekend

Cheers

[chrisc]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don' tthink there is much hope for this as a color or B&W. I did some color adjusting and a small crop but there just isn't one really good focal point that doesn't have to compete with the eye because of a shape, a color or a value.

A Lee .6 or .9 gradual neutral density filter would have heped to secure your gorund values while still preserving your sky, but in this instance you got neither.

[jeeperman]

It is really up to your vision of what should be the outcome. After seeing your edited version I am guessing you are looking for a little more saturated than what I saw in it. Here is a quick attempt of what was in my head.
Simply a levels adjustment and some contrast bump. I finished it off with a slight dodging of the sand where the footprints lead off to the distance and I light sharpen.

[jeeperman]

Ahh....I type slow! ;D Chris beat me to it.

[chrisc]

I did desaturate the foreground wave to try to bring it back to white as I thought the blue didn't look natural.