I've been working on this off and on for a while now and can't seem to get anywhere with it. It needs something or has too much of something. I need a hard critical eye so don't be shy. All comments are welcome.

The sky is beautiful, love the light rays, the water is very nice. background is excellent.
Is that supposed to be an iceburg? If so, don't they usually have 2/3 below the water surface? Unless the water is really churned up maybe the reflection should start right under the iceburg. just my opinion.

I agree, this is an awesome pic....the iceburg to me looks like it is hovering...so I'd try to lower it and move up the reflection......but otherwise this is a great picture!

I thought it was purple crystals of some sort floating in the air...I think they could look a bit more transparent or shiny or something.

My two cents worth... The cluster of crystals has two dominant elements and a number of small ones clustered around the base. I'd suggest either a single crystal or a cluster of similar sized crystals.

The color reminds me of amethyst, but amethyst is clear/transparent.

The lightning looks very good.

Thanks for all the comments. I used a picture of a cluster of crystals and they are supposed to be floating above the water with sort of a mystical feel, hence the colors of the water and the clouds. I was afraid the light rays were too over powering so I lowered the opacity quite a bit. I did consider making the crystal more transparent. the lightning is supposed to be sort of lighting up the area underneath but is it too bright?

1. I used a layer mask to reduce some of the plasma around the crystal to see it better.
2. Duped the crystal layer and set it to Overlay and reduced the opacity of the other one to about 50%. any lower and it picks up too much of the red in the clouds behind it. Hard to get it to look transparent at this point. I may look for another one.
3. Changed the reflection and moved it up a tad as suggested and added ripples to match the waves.
4. Centered the crystal adn reflection and added a small shadow under the crystal.
5. Lowered the opacity of the glow underneath to 85%

I still think this needs something else to give it more of an ethereal feel to it. Any ideas?

Time to look at some basics.

Light sources are very important. Where are they?

There's one behind the clouds, but it's sending mixed signals. The light rays on the far right extend into the foreground. The rays from the other two cloud holes don't agree. The holes are nearer, but the rays strike in the background. This produces visual confusion.

How about the lightning? It usually produces intense light. But the crystal isn't illuminated by that light, nor does it show any reflections from that light. Instead, the near side of the crystal is dark.

And perhaps the crystal itself should be a source of light...

Just some basic observations.

Thanks for those pointers. You have a good eye for details. I also noticed the light rays on the right after my last post and realized it did not look right. I agree with you on the crystal being brighter like it was the source of light. I was thinking in terms of the lightning and the plasma being the light source around the crystal but still there would be more reflection on the crystal itself if that were teh case.... still doesn't look right to me. I'll definitely have to rework those light rays.