I'm not a fan of HDR but used it on this since the dynamic range was so high. I don't like having the horizon in the middle either but not sure if cropping would improve it. I turned the saturation up to 11 on this one but I like the look for now. Avon Fishing Pier by lozinskitom, on Flickr]Fishing Pier[/url]
I like saturation, but even for me it's a bit over the top. You could consider creating more sky at the top to change the composition. It could benefit from some clockwise rotation. too.
RustyBug, after rereading what you wrote I see what you're saying about the colors, not that they are two high, just that their complements are zero. Most likely from steep curves in LAB channels.
I did the edit with duplicate masked layers one with the midtone slider moved right to darken the sky and the other moved left to lighten the foreground. I then blended those layers in to the original with the masks.
I cropped out the rocks on the right because the focal point here is the building and flag on the end of the pier and I didn't want the contrast / detail of the rocks to tempt the viewer to leave it. After cropping I noticed a minor detail I'd overlooked previously, the small solitary cloud that sticks up and mirrors the shape flag on the end of the pier.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I didn't think adding extra space to the top worked so I went the other way and cropped the top off. I averaged the original with the HDR version and now those zero color values are gone (except for the blacks.) I straightened the horizon, cut the distracting rocks off the right side. I guess I'm a sucker for color because my version is still more saturated then all the suggestions, probably wouldn't print that well.
