Any post processing was minor, not highly processed. Most of the effect is from a tripod and long exposure. And the most important factor was walking around and finding the great composition.
like I said, I do a lot of photography, aNd have noted the things I noted aS they are familiar techniques to me- The dynamic range is too great for a simple straight out of camera shot-The shadows have been lifted- this isn’t something that a long exposure will accomplish- it has to be done post process- and the color is far too saturated- and it has a heavy vignette as stated before- The composition is incidental to the points brought up- it has nothing to do with shadows, color, light etc-
These of course are personal preferences- I don’t particularly like photos that manipulate the dynamic range so much, nor that boost the color saturation to such a degree-
there are some other indications as well, such as stars I nthe sky- long exposure would cause ‘trails’ in the stars because of rotation of earth- (depending on how long the exposure is)- They would be blurry- and look like streaks- to me this photo seems to show some as streaks, some as sharper points of light- but it’s hard to tell with a small photo
you can see the sky is blotchy I n the light area- an indication of lifting the darks in the sky and of color manipulation- A straight out of camera shot would have the sky much smoother looking- it was pushed quite far-