Veined sky on Church (HDR)

[chrean]

I've tried to make another attempt at rendering this old HDR I made some month ago.
First one was using a different algo and different mappings, as well as a different PP, and was not very convincing.

Link to first attempt: Venzone on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Now it looks more like it was in the reality: a nice veined sky at sunset over a church. But maybe it still presents too much magenta. What do you think about it? How could I improve this rendering?
TIA

[digirebelva]

I think it looks pretty good, from an HDR standpoint, the church (I assume its a church) being cut off though makes me wonder what was the promary focus of the shot, the sky or the building?

[chrean]

Well, both should be subjects of the picture.
Maybe what I've always seen as a balanced framing is just a confusing one instead?

[digirebelva]

Okay, so what should the eye be drawn to...and how does it get there?

[windrider86]

2 things i noticed right off the bat. #1 is the church door has a tilt to it. Easy fix
The main wall for the church is right in the middle of the frame. Try using the rule of thirds as a guidleines for your placement

As an HDR it should be pulling out more highlights and contrasts. I notice the smaller wall is still pretty dark, can you bring that out a bit more?

[chrean]

Thank you very much for your inputs; they were really appreaciated.
I begin to think that I failed to take my raws, since I did not respect the thirds rule nor I did care enough for a good framing, thinking that a beautiful sky and lots of stone would make it.

That day, anyway, I took another HDR-ready series of the same subject - but the orientation was vertical - so I've tried to pull something more out of them, keeping in mind your tips. This is the result:



What do you think about it?

[Jun Xiang Goh]

for me the 2nd got a better composition..but i like the magenta sky of the 1st so much

[chrean]

Point taken.
Thank you for commenting!

[Nocojoe]

I like the first one much better. It is much more believable than the second one.

[milosh]

I also like the second one better, although the cut off church porch leaves me wondering a bit what's the rest of the church like.

Michelle, can you please explain a bit about fixing the tilted door. I also see the tilt, but to me it looks like a thing of perspective. The whole porch is tilted the same as door, and yet the porch is parallel to the wall, which doesn't look tilted. Can this be corrected so that everything looks normal? Were you referring to tilting only the door somehow or the whole image, and in which direction? I'm a bit puzzled by this. Thanks