Time to teach a refresher course and get back to the basics. Everyone, no matter what level you are at needs to go back to the basics once in a while. I am talking about breaking you color photos down to basic value tones.

 

I am using works by 3 master painters to demonstrate how I would like you to look at your photo reference to determine if your scene has a good simple light and dark value pattern. 

 

These paintings below I have broken down into 2 or 3 values so I can show you how well the light and dark patterns work. The first one is a painting by Sorolla and even though it looks like everything is in the sun the water and sand and shadows act as the dark for this simple design. I see the women as the light and the background is the dark. The water and sand are not as dark as they are in the black and white image but I do this so you can pick out exactly what are the lights and what are the darks in the pattern.

 

The second painting is by John Pike and in this image, there are more lights then there are darks. 
I had been taught that you shouldn't divide the values in half but instead let them be 1/3rd light and 2/3rd dark or the other way around 1/3rd dark and 2/3rd light.

 

Look for the large lights and darks to simplify the value pattern. Simplify objects and areas to black or white and this can help you in creating a good value pattern.