Dusk. Calero Park. April 29, 2006. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell.

This is a very tricky image. The difference in brightness between the sky and the foreground was extreme, with such a great dynamic range the multiple exposures were required. Exposures differed by as much as 4 stops.

Two versions of the image were combined. The sky and most of the distant hills came from an image that was exposed for the bright sky. The foreground came from an image exposed for the grass and trees.

The top layer was the darker image exposed for the sky. Using layer masks I uncovered portions of the lower image, and adjusted saturation, levels, and so on to compensate.

Since the image contained a dynamic range that the eye can handle but camera cannot record, it is hard to say what an “accurate” image should look like. I think this version fairly captures my perception of the scene at the time.
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