Wellington Mountains

[William Walker]

The evenings are really lovely down in the Cape these days.

I, as always, appreciate your comments.

William

[Tony Jay]

The evenings are really lovely down in the Cape these days.

I, as always, appreciate your comments.

William

I can feel the heat and the south-easter desiccating those wheat fields from across an ocean!

BTW Merry Christmas!

Tony Jay

[William Walker]

BTW Merry Christmas!

Tony Jay

Thanks Tony! And to you and all the other members too!

[SanderKikkert]

Nice soft shapes and smooth lines, I can feel that heat too, good one William.

[brandtb]

the center area of mtns and the curving field rows are together interesting. The sky though, covers so much of the frame and is mostly wan an indistinct - it distracts from the aforementioned. The pale diagonal cloud in sky plus the black "line" in mid ground created a triangle that leads the eye out of the frame to the right. You might crop into this and see if there are iterations that aren't more successful.

[David Eckels]

I have to agree with Bradt. I favor a different AR, perhaps 3:1 for a panoramic scene like this unless the sky were more dramatic. That's just a personal opinion of course. Not sure about the triangle though. The overly wide expanse of somewhat bland sky was my first impression, but the rows of wheat and the way they curve around to the right: sublime! The PP matches the mood nicely, too.
As always, IMHO.

Edit: Something like this. Photog's preference tho. I think Brandt is right.

[David Eckels]

I had another thought, William. I have sometimes used Content Aware Scaling to shrink such an expanse of sky, achieve more the desired AR, and add some drama. Perhaps worth a try.

Edit: Like this. Again, photog's prerogative

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I had another thought, William. I have sometimes used Content Aware Scaling to shrink such an expanse of sky, achieve more the desired AR, and add some drama. Perhaps worth a try...

Briotizing + Raberizing it at the same time?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

The mountains look like South Dakota's Badlands on steroids. Fine image as-is.

[stamper]

An image that has many possibilities with regards to rendering. The original is fine imo and William's version should be respected. I usually don't favour members downloading and altering a image, however the later versions have merit. Maybe William used the Content aware filter to expand the image in the first place?

[David Eckels]

Slobodan and Robert, LOL. I usually don't download and alter (understand your point Robert), but felt William had kind of opened the door with the solicitation of comments and I wasn't sure about whether I had communicated effectively. No excuses. If I offended you William I am deeply sorry. Maybe we should always ask permission first? Or share alternative renderings offline? Thanks for the reminder, Robert.
Re: Briotizing and Raberizing, actually I don't have a problem with either; the proof is in the pudding at the end of the day. I really liked the OP, but thought because William had chosen to post in "User Critiques" that he was open to other ideas. I will take Robert's admonition to heart, lick my wounds , and become a more genteel forum denizen! I hope my attempt at humor does not undermine the fact that I take the issue seriously.
Back to the OP: I really like the original image and the PP rendering, mood is outstanding, and agree with much of the previous comments. I guess this is a long winded apology and attempt to say simply that I would prefer the longer aspect ratio with a shot such as this one, which is why I wrote photog's preference.
Best wishes to all for 2016!

[William Walker]

If I offended you William I am deeply sorry. Maybe we should always ask permission first? Or share alternative renderings offline? Thanks for the reminder, Robert.

David, I am not offended at all! In fact, I think I like your second effort better than mine. I have not yet decided whether I am comfortable "Briotizing" my pictures and had never thought of using Content-Aware "top-to-bottom" - so I learned something!

Thanks, as usual to all those who offered their opinions, I appreciate it!
William