Cloud Processing & perspective in Lr; Suggestions to improve?

[Todd Suttles]

Shot w/ 24mm end of zoom (24-105); some vertical correction on perspective. Looking for critique to improve image from those of you with more experience than I. Thanks in Advance,
-t

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Shot w/ 24mm end of zoom (24-105); some vertical correction on perspective. Looking for critique to improve image from those of you with more experience than I. Thanks in Advance,
-t

Nice simple composition.
Sharpen less, get rid of the halos.
A B/W conversion might improve it.

Cheers
~Chris

[Todd Suttles]

Thanks Chris. Is this better?

[Ed Blagden]

I did warn you about the perils of doing post processing by committee  .  Anyway, how 'bout this?

Hint: use the B&W Mix Sliders.  The canned B&W Filter Presets give some good starting points if you don't know where to start.

Composition is OK but that post in the bottom left really bugs me.

EDIT: Apologies for doing my own edit on your image.  Some people don't like this and consider it a breach of etiquette.  Personally it doesn't bother me at all, but if you are one of those who gets annoyed by this then please accept my apologies and I won't do it again.  In this case I just couldn't resist doing a bit of mild Anselling to your photo  !  

I'm only now getting in to B&W processing, having focussed on colour in the past except for portraits.  So I'm not an expert at this by any means.  Having said that the general idea for this kind of shot (natural landscape with blue sky) is to boost the reds, oranges and yellows, and to pull back the blues and aquas.  This gives you a dark sky, and any clouds will really pop out.  Nearby vegetation and buildings (unless the building happens to be blue) will be emphasised, and contrast well with the dark sky.  Just like putting an orange filter on your camera back in the day.  Obviously each image is different and must be seasoned to your taste but that is usually the general approach for most photos of this kind.

Sorry I couldn't get rid of the halos on the horizon - I don't know how to do this on a JPEG. 

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Thanks Chris. Is this better?

Seems the halos are gone, but see Ed's version concerning the color translation.

[RSL]

Todd, In the original version, not only is the picture way over-sharpened, but the color saturation is cranked up way too high. If you really want us to critique your post-processing, you're going to have to post a copy of the picture from right out of the camera, along with the product of your post-processing.

[Todd Suttles]

Thanks Rus & Ed. Here is what I did with your suggestions. I left sharpening at Lr default. Thank you for your time and help. I appreciate you, -t

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Seems the last version now works.
If you want to try something crazy, put the colored version in a layer on top of the b/w one in overlay mode,
color mode or soft light mode and play with the transparency.

Cheers
~Chris

[KMRennie]

I have concentrated on the clouds and applied some Nik tonal contrast to them but masked it so that it is not applied to the edge of the clouds and thus created halos. I have also cropped the top off, hope you don't mind. Ken

[Todd Suttles]

Thanks Chris, never done that before. More to play with

[Todd Suttles]

Thanks Ken, I like  what you did with it. Much appreciated, -t

[Ed Blagden]

Thanks Chris, never done that before. More to play with

Nothing ventured nothing gained.... but in this case no.  Just no.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Nothing ventured nothing gained.... but in this case no.  Just no.

Let him play more and explore the new toy.
In the end there will be something usable.
I myself play around a lot.

[Ed Blagden]

Let him play more and explore the new toy.
In the end there will be something usable.
I myself play around a lot.

Christoph,

I agree - that's why I said nothing ventured nothing gained.  In other words try everything and see what happens, you may be surprised.  In this case I was critiquing the image (yeuurk) not the workflow.  Kudos to Todd for trying something different.

[wmchauncey]

I did warn you about the perils of doing post processing by committee

That...is one of the wiser things that I've recently read,