sunset seastack+repost

The contrasting colors and the clean foreground give this image a really nice feel. To me, the cliff face on the extreme right has what I would consider a natural exposure given the lighting conditions. The separate sea stack toward the middle left of the composition appears a bit brighter than natural --- especially toward the middle of it. I'd suggest taking that down a bit in brightness with your blend, and then you'll be in good shape. I also detect a halo around that sea stack, as well as the cliffs to the right. I can't tell if that's just from web sharpening, or if that's from a selecting from the blending.

Beautiful comp. The blended sunset reflction looks perfect, but I don't know about the whole area to the right of that beautiful reflection, especilly the stack. The light on the cliffs and stacks, however, does seem kind of odd with the clouds apparently putting the cliff on the right into deep shade, it's difficult to imagine what could be lighting up the front of the backlit stack, which appears to be glowing.

Wonderful detail in the sand and surf Neale. The cliff on the right looks fine with just the right amount of detail in the shadow areas. Other then the halo, the center stack look fine as well. I am guessing the reflected light off the water is throwing some light on it.

Thanks for the detailed, useful comments. Just to clarify, the only blended bit is the sky to the left of the stack. The water hasn't been touched. Also, I didn't add any light into the rock faces , the existing light must be as Eva said, reflected from the water. To address this perceived imbalance however, I will have a look at lightening the R.H. cliff face a touch and maybe reducing the light on the other rock faces when I get a chance in a couple of days time. Thanks again.

The colors are really pretty and the sand has some amazing texture to it. The amount of detail in the sea stack and cliffs look natural enough to me (maybe go a little darker), but the haloing around the edges is very evident. I'd personally clean that up. This is a sweet shot though Neale.

Love the textures in the water and rocks and the warmth in the sand. The blend in the upper parts of the rocks and sky maybe doesn't look quite right, but I'm not sure what to recommend. Lower sky look more right.

Here I've decreased levels on the stack and distant cliff while raising levels slightly on R.H. cliff.
I've also worked on halo reduction. Improvement or not? Opinions very welcome.