'Golden Ripples'... sounds like a cheap chardonnay based wine but I digress...lol..

These are difficult shooting conditions I think because of the lack of cloud. I see what Paul means. I think if you wanted more contrast, you could select just inside the sandy area down to the bottom, feather it to maybe 50 pixels and adjust the levels a bit. I do like seeing the detail on this side of the lighthouse, so increasing contrast in the sky might make you lose a lot of detail.

I do like how the water forms almost a curving pathway on the right side. And the ripples do look good.

Patrick

Yes, too much sharpening or added saturation will make an image grainy. This is a very dramatic image, so you got there at the right time. Using ND grad filters can help with the sky so you don't have to do as much work and the sky will look more natural. In general, don't sharpen the sky or at most select the sky and use a radius of about 20 pixels and sharpen just a very small amount (for contrast.) Select the land, feather it and sharpen that by itself.

Patrick