Is this overcooked? Cinque Terre after/before

[u/level1807]

My brain loves it but can it be improved? Also I just discovered how much better edited photos can look in HDR, but idk if Reddit supports it. I tried to make the SDR preview as good as I could, but please forgive the slight flattening of the details in the highlights.

[u/tectonic_ideal]

I don’t understand the negative replies. I do think the edited version is a bit overcooked but a lot better than the unedited photo. Too little of the village is lit by the sun so relying on “natural contrast” as others are saying is not really an option

[u/Wide_Internal_3999 → u/tectonic_ideal]

A lot of that is the crop with the negative space in the upper and lower right that really doesn’t add anything.

A letterbox crop makes the village shadow contrast in the village pop.