I'll take your word, Dave. But those who won't read your story might find it a bit over-the-top (saturation, that is).
You see, it looks to me that you tried to open up a bit shadows in the first stretch of land in the background. Now, with such strong saturation, I would say that our perception would expect a much stronger, if not totally black silhouette. The second land/island, being more distant and hazy, could remain less dark, however. In other words, you can't have it both ways: strong, saturated colors and opened shadows. I mean, you obviously can, but the effect is not believable. Believe me
Yes I agree it does look oversaturated and the land doesn't look black enough, I admit it. But the clouds were actually over the land and reflecting light back down onto it so perhaps that is the reason why - not all anomalies are the result of over shopping an image you know
This was towards the end of the light show and so I was exposing the scene for several seconds, in fact I was overexposing it you might say - as it looked far better on my review screen and the cameras ability to see the fading light, than I was actually able to see with my eyes. So all I can say is it was what the camera was capturing, even though I have obviously worked it somewhat in post.
I will try a different version and show it here, because as I said, I must have well over a hundred shots of this sunset which really was amazing, but perhaps I have not done it the full justice it deserves. In fact I have a six or seven vertical shot pano of it from the beginning of the sunset - leave it with me and I will return with that one -
which I now have done and replaced in the original post above Dave