Gold blend

When it comes to capturing a sunset sky it can be very tricky to balance out the exposure. The most vibrant part of the sunset sky is usually the area around the setting sun, but shooting into the sun usually results in a foreground in deep shadow. What if we want to capture detail in both the sky and land? One solution is to capture two or more bracketed exposures – one taken to record detail in the sky, the other for the land – then blend them together afterwards by taking the best parts of each exposure and combining them in Photoshop. This involves a combination of selections, layer masking and toning tricks. We’ll explore the process here, and look at a few simple effects you can use to boost a sky in Photoshop.

Initial toning

Photoshop is the best in the business at blending images together, so it’s