Thanks again for commenting. #350994

Because the tones in this scene ranged in contrast too much - with the land and lake being relatively dark and the sky being very bright - there was no way (short of using a graduated neutral density filter) for me to accurately capture all the tones.

As I did not have a graduated ND filter with me, I exposed one photo for the sky and then took another photo, exposing for the land. Then, back in the comfort of my home, I combined the two images in Photoshop. #372264

I too love Photoshop and all the perfecting it allows us to do.

Thanks again! #389839

Besides, nobody complains when analog photographers use a Contrast Mask--a processing method specifically intending (in most cases) to to narrow the dynamic range by pulling out dark and light details. You can do the exact same thing in Photoshop.

Now if you had edited in a giraffe or an extra mountain, then I too would be yelling, "that's cheating".

BTW, I've used the method you used often, but I've discovered a much easier way to get the same result. It's better in one way because you don't get the transition problems where one blends into the other. But it's not as good in another way, because you do get a little more noise (but not anywhere near as much as, say, doing Equalize on a dark photo). This is my own "patented invention":
• Open original.
• Perform an "Auto-Contrast".
• Copy background layer.
• Copy background layer again (for three total layers).
• Select top layer.
• Desaturate colors of this layer to B&W.
• Invert colors (for a negative image).
• Set layer type to "SOFT LIGHT".
• Set layer opacity to 75%, or whatever looks best (don't worry about too much color saturation yet).
• Flatten top layer into layer below.
• Set new top layer property to "Luminosity".
• Flatten into the bottom layer.
• There may be too much color saturation. Back it off a bit.

Here's how to do a traditional Contrast Mask, which gives very different results (sometimes better, usually worse, than the above method):
• Open original.
• Perform an "Auto-Contrast".
• Copy background layer.
• Copy background layer again (for three total layers).
• Select top layer.
• Desaturate colors of this layer to B&W.
• Invert colors (for a negative image).
• Set layer type to "Overlay".
• Open Gaussian Blur dialog, set to an amount that works well. Start at 90 (yes 90), and try higher & lower. Hit OK.
• Flatten top layer into layer below.
• Set new top layer property to "Luminosity".
• Flatten into the bottom layer.
• There may be too much color saturation. Back it off a bit.

To get even better results with both methods, when the instructions stay "Desaturate colors", do this instead: insert one layer of a flattened 50/50 mix of a regular desaturated image, and the Brightness channel from a LAB mode conversion. Using either one alone produces variously odd, noisy, or less than ideal results. A 50/50 mix is just about perfect. You might make a Photoshop Action to do this quickly.

Hope this helps!
Jim #583675