Help Please. Something wrong, but not sure what

[summernz]

Hi.
I would be grateful for any assistance with this image - something does not look right - maybe the composition? I would have like more atmosphere with the sky, but not sure if it would help. I use Lightroom and photoshop but am not good with the latter! 

[langier]

Composition seems good, but it needs snap, micro contrast in the shadows, pop in the clouds. In LR/ACR, add some contrast and pump-up the clarity slider. I personally use Nik Silver Efex which even the presents do wonders for my b&w conversions and in color, use the b&w conversion as a luminance mask to "pop" my images.

This is a good start and it's now a matter of working it a little, to fine-tune the craft of you image and I think you will get what you are looking for.

[Bruce Cox]

I suppose the clouds could be punchier, though for me this a remarkably stable cheese sandwich of a composition.  I like Panos sometimes, but here I think you could make this into a handful of less wide compositions of greater drama.

For starters you could make a square centered on the volcano or two frames with the volcano's top bisected by the right or left edges of a frame.

You may not want drama.  You may be out to pacify the volcano.  I may have the wrong attitude about volcanos.

Bruce

[Tony Jay]

To me both global and local contrast is lacking.
Composition and overall image looks to be a potential winner but it really does require some work in post.

Tony Jay

[summernz]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to comment and you have given me plenty of new angles from which to work, which is hugely appreciated. I will be playing around in post but will certainly be re-visiting the scene again.  Cheers Sean

[Tony Jay]

For what it is worth I have had a play. The result is below.
I believe that the texture of the foreground is much more pronounced and gives a lead in to the image.
The clouds and the rest of the background are also much better defined.

All the adjustments were global from the basics panel along with a small contrast curve adjustment.


Tony Jay

Edit: It must be admitted that on my monitor at least and using Safari that the edits I made are less obvious than when viewed in Lightroom - nonetheless there are some differences visible.

[summernz]

Hi Tony. Thanks very much for having a play with the image and yes I do see the changes and they are definitely improvements. I have also taken another one from the set, have done a tighter crop and increased the clarity which I think changes the atmosphere in the image?