Just wanted to share my latest edit from my NZ trip last year (yes I'm still getting through them all...). Shot from 3 landscape images that were bracketed (ie 9 photos all up).
I got this panorama in seconds before the weather closed in on a hike to the summit for sunset. I stopped here because I wasn't sure the weather was going to hold until the top. Less than a minute after this was taken, I took a shot and the snow was pelting down. But it cleared up again 10 mins later and I made it in time for the sunset.
This is a beautiful scene. You correctly describe it as a panorama. Does this mean you shot it as a series of shots stitched together or was it done as a single shot? Either way I like it. I think a bit more foreground might have balanced the area of sky a bit better, assuming the foreground was acceptable. Or the sky could have been cropped ever so slightly tighter. The blue distance seems to be strangely turquiose, which looks rather odd and unnatural, to me anyway. In other words I suggest reducing the green, from the mid tones at least.
I think the vivid blue sky to the right is oddly unnatural and so a bit disturbing. I also think the crop at the right looks too tight, by a small amount. If that is your widest lens, and it very well might be, then panning to the right, a little, would have looked better as tightening the left would not have been a problem and the result would have been better balance.
Taking your posted version I have played about to illustrate my suggestions. Clearly I did not have the original RAW file so there are limits to what I could do, especially with the randome spread of overblown colours. Took 5 mins. Don't forget to click on it to see it as intended.
Altogether, a very nice picture, in the making. Well done.
Beautiful location Craig. I'm struggling a bit with the mountains on the left relative to the rest of the image. I am distracted by the partial snow cover on the mountains. The right two thirds of the image is very strong, clean, crisp, and colorful and the left third not so much. I'd leave in the first smaller snow peak but crop it to just leave a bit of space for the trail in the snow ( I really like that element). I've seen mountain lakes this color so that is not distracting me at all. I love the light and interaction with the clouds. All in all - congrats
Mike
I see what you are saying but I like the sunburst, so I need more to the left than you suggest. Also I see the water as the sea, being so large and well below the snowline. I suppose it could be a lake. It might look more aposite as a tropical lagoon but for such a winter setting the inlet, well it and the mountains in the far centre, just look odd being ultra blue/turquoise, to me.