Need help with this shot REDO

Some of you might have seen the other thread I posted about these shots. It seems to have fallen by the wayside, so I figured I would get more responses if I reposted them. I've spent a lot more time on them, and now that they're quite different from when I started, what do you all think about the crop? Also, please critique my PPing. Are the buildings and boat still too dark?

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I did not see your postings elsewhere.
#1 is not at all bad. However, I can see why you think that #2 is an improvement. In many ways it is, but many compositional issues are so subjective that there is never a "last word" on them.
I do like the lighter, brighter rendition a little better than the first version - primarily because it does have better detail by virtue of being brighter.

I don't think I would have complained about the piling to the right, but in that picture I probably would have complained that it is too centered or too symmetrical. Taking away the piling does seem to provide better eye travel.

The problem I was having before with the pole was that in a square crop, I felt that it threw the perspective off; the leading lines were all screwy.

It's a sunset shot. Objects are supposed to be dark. I wonder why you posted two very similar shots, however. The piling in the first is a major detraction, especially with that flag and pole seeming to grow out of the top.

If you're not going for journalistic integrity, I would clone out the various protuberances from the buildings that jut into the sky.

I didn't even think of that; no one mentioned them before. I think that will definitely help, thanks.

As for being dark, EVERYONE on the other forum I posted on complained about it being dark; I lightened it up a bit, but I was scared to go any further than what you see here. I think it would just look goofy.

So far people seem to be split on the subject of the pole.

No pole for me but number one for light! sorry if that confuses matters even more.

Maybe I'll give cloning the pole out one more go. It went to hell the last couple of times I tried, but we'll see what happens. Diligence!

Trying to clone out that pole is an exercise in futility above the shoreline.
Better to crop it out, along with some sky, to retain the same crop ratio.

to keep with the pole theme, it seems there's some kind of pole on the left edge of the picture and it might be a little better to crop that side in a tiny bit. also, i don't really like how the dark parts of the picture that you had to artificially lighten now look very noisy (like the boat). i think the picture's better without the pole to the right. however, i don't like the very square crop. landscape and sunset pictures usually look better with a wider aspect ratio, imo. now that i'm done with my 'critique,' i think you captured a very nice sunset and the colors are gorgeous. it works well the with the whole maritime scene.

for fun... i brightened the boating area, but left the sky close to the same - tho i did add some orton technique digital method

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I removed a lot of the distracting features of the houses, and also saturated the water a bit.

I like your second crop at the top..that little extra light was worth it.

Q: How do you brighten a sunset without blowing out the highlights?

A: You brighten it by making other parts of the sky darker.

That might seem contrary to some suggestions about the image appearing to be dark and that it should be lightened, but illusions can be used to trick the mind.

Additionally, One of my thoughts about the image is that some of the great sky color ought to be reflecting off the water.

With those two thoughts in mind (and some others along the way), I came up with the following edit for what I think is already a great sunset shot. I don't have any particular problem with the piling in the image since it is something that would be expected in this sort of setting. I have the same feelings about the utility poles, antennas, etc. They all have a reason for being in a setting such as this and, to me, use of the cloning tools in Photoshop requires better justification than, "I think that I will do it just because I can".

Most of the miscellaneous adjustments that I made were related to tweaking the color temperature of various parts of the scene to make it appear a bit more homogeneous such as adding a bit of the sunset color cast to the side of the boat in the foreground.

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You bring up some interesting points, and I will definitely take them to heart from now on. Thank you.