Not sure what you are ideally trying to achieve with these Edinburgh Castle shots, however am willing to offer an opinion on them as they are. I'm not an expert in photography, so the technical aspects, etc will hopefully be provided to you by 'another' (if that is what you are also seeking), otherwise try to educate yourself on them here at DPC or elsewhere.
The subject has been photographed many times, so either you need to do a flawless 'standard' or else try to do something unique, in my opinion. I like the sky in both shots, although the purple tinged one does have a bit more drama, primarily because of the range. This blue one seems to have some issues bottom right corner going down over the steeples, which at a quick glance look like a broad dodge brush stroke, but not sure. This famous historical Castle has a lot of character, so trying to capture that into an image, 'somehow', will also give an edge to these shots.
Besides the sky (which seems relatively 'clean' in both shots), the two main detractors in these shots in my opinion are the shape/silhouette of the castle and the composition/framing. The shape/silhouette with more detail and shape discernible (perhaps even more tightly cropped to 'show' the castle/architectural features more), or else possibly even allowing some light play in 'somehow' to light the subject (unless a silhouette is your intent). Angle, including 'the best', as well as an unusual one, (obviously restricted by access to vantage points), is also important. The composition, whilst the sky is nice, the castle isn't appearing in the frame enough, and the parts that are, are not balanced within the frame/composition. A variation in crop, and also framing (to suit the 'shape' of the composition), would also likely improve these shots. Either choosing a specific profile/side of the Castle and creating an image of it, or else isolating areas of the Castle that you like and 'showcasing' them, via a much tighter zoom.
This 'opinion'/comment covers both images, so will paste a copy onto the other. If you put these into your Portfolio, they'll show up on the recent comments/uploads page, as well as your Profile page & you may get more comments/feedback as well. Also, given you've asked twice in the Forums for feedback on these, it might be a good idea to put what you were trying to achieve in your photographer's comments, as well as the forum post perhaps. edit:removed pasted typo comment, although paying some attention to your titles in general, is also important, in my opinion & edit2:added Thread
The sharpening on this one seems just perfect. The edges are very distinct without much (if any) halo around them.
It still looks like a little bit of banding in the sky. I've also seen banding occur when applying a neat image or a gaussian blur to the sky (usually an attempt to hide noise). If you're doing either of these, you just need to keep it subtle and then the banding will go away.
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