Iv been using photoshop for a while now but never really done anything like this.
Here's my first try at it anyway. Nothing fancy dont to it just adjusted the contrast and the levels.

Scarab from a distance

Cheers:)

huh not bad.. and welcome to the site!

some of my tips that may help you... first off it looks like you went a little overboard on the burn for the shadow.. or maybe that was just the levels or something.. it looks kinda extreme.

next, the image is small. the images you download should give you a HUGE panorama to work with. If you don't like working with such a large thing, zoom out and see your work close up when you are done.. then resize it to a good looking size that looks nice.

also, if you want to give more focus to the focal point of the image, it looks like you kinda tried that, but anyways, you can duplicate the layer and put a gaussian blur on it. from there, you can lower its opacity to a good setting and erase the gaussian blur from the focal point with a soft brush.. that should give you a good focused image, but don't make it too apparent that its the only thing sharpened.. have it kinda fade.

and one last thing, the image is a little bright. i would tone it down a bit, but that one is more of a personal taste.

hope you enjoy your stay here!

excellent first try =]

there is a better way than knight kninjas blurring idea, google miniture buildings and that should give you a give idea on blurring =]

welcome,thats a nice view and just shows you how huge halo is.
i would probably upload it a bit bigger as you could see more detail.
nice work

the framing of the shot is excellent. that's one of the hardest things for me sometimes.

Nice first work, a good effort knowing that you had to play through a good chunk of the campaign mission to get your shots for this. Keep em coming!

Cheers for all the feedback everyone!
Didn't think id get this many views and comments on it but im glad i did.
I'll come back to it later and re-do it, adding some of the effects and using some of your ideas.
Thanks lads!