3rd Time Charm w/2nd repost

On my 3rd trip in here during the last month, Mother Nature finally blessed me with some color in the sky. 3rd version posted.

Comments and suggestions welcome

You've got a great sky here Richard. I feel the bottom half and kiva area needs to be lightened a bit to make this really stand out.

Exactly what Jack said. This would have been an ideal image for a double exposure blend, but you still may be able to double process the RAW file to get just a bit more detail in the fore and midground..

What those guys said, just brighten the foreground a little. Great capture though with the color in the sky. Nice work.

Should have noted that I really like the afterglow on Candlestick Butte and the canyon walls. Nice work, indeed!

I dunno, to me the sky and larger landscape feel kind of dark and low contrast compared to the foreground under the overhang. The shadowed walls of the kiva could maybe use a little more detail, but the oustside, especially to the left feels somehow heavy and hazy to me. But there's no question that it's a sweet shot with an amazing sky!

Ok....now that I have the sleepys out of my eyes and my feeble brain recharged with a little sleep I went back to work this morning on the dark kiva area. Thanks for the replies and suggestions! This photo is actually a 3 exposure blend. sky, butte area, and kiva
Any suggestions on the re-work will be appreciated!

richard, the colors are spectacular and love the comp on this one! I like the re-post much better , but I do still find myself wishing it was just a bit brighter still.

I'd say you are 90% there with the re-post....looks much better. I still think just a little lighter in the kiva itself and lower valley area below candlestick. The final is gonna be a show stopper!!

The interior of the alcove looks better now, but the entire midground is still too dark for my taste on a calibrated monitor.

Moving in the right direction, Richard. In addition to bumping up overall brightness, a little more contrast would also be beneficial.

Ok....3rd try to go along with the 3rd trip
I appreciate the feedback on this. I've been hesitant to brighten the image too much and have it lighter than the sky.
As before, suggestions appreciated!

BINGO!!!! WoW, that was worth the re-works This did it for me Richard. I personally love it!

The midground looks perfect now, but it seems to me that the alcove/right hillside area is a bit too bright. I prefer the luminosity of the second repost in the alcove/hillside, but I think you've nailed everything else. This is really quite a spectacular image and well worth the time and effort you're putting into 'developing' it properly.

Personally, I don't like the HDR effect of the heavily over-saturated land part of the image.

Not trying to make sales for Chips tutorial but if you know your way somewhat around photoshop, his techniques along with Tony Kuypers luminosity masks might help you a lot because you can isolate small parts of the image for those "special" bumps to make this thing sing! You've come a long way in this one so far and you are very close to where you need to be. John M. is an expert at this stuff so I will defer to him!