Hi Kay,
This is a great photo and one of the things that makes it special is that sky… it is stunning.
I know that you have dropped that sky onto the lower image and that is ok… but the one thing that would improve this image is to get more contrast into the cirrus cloud.
There are a few different techniques that you can apply to get contrast into that sky. One is to use a High Dynamic Range tool although the problem with using this technique is that you might not want the effect to be used on the overall image. As an option, in Photoshop select the whole image and copy it… then apply the HDR effect to get the sky that you want and the paste the original image back on top again. Then use a layer mask to reveal the HDR adjusted sky while keeping the foreground normal.
Now, for the example below I opened up the image in Nik Software’s Viveza 2 and I used the both the Structure and the Contrast tools to adjust the sky. Then I used the same software to gently add warmth to the posts and lighten the skin tones.
That’s my take anyway!
Good effort, cheers, Anthony
Image Doctor's edited version
