1st attempt at combining RAW files - opinions please

Two files made from one here in that I dragged the exposure down on the sky to try to give it an overcast imminent storm look and combined that with a, hopefully, correctly exposed foreground in an attempt to create something interesting. This is my first attempt at anything like this and I'd value constructive comments. Thanks

Looks like a great job to me :P

looks great other than the pole in the middle haha

gen2roller wrote in post #14888015
looks great other than the pole in the middle haha

What he said. Now you get to practice your cloning skills!

Looks pretty good and balanced to me. If you were to 'finish' the shot, you would level the horizon and clone out the pole as discussed. Also--do I see the transition line above the horizon ?

erikfig wrote in post #14887254
Looks like a great job to me :P

Thanks

gen2roller wrote in post #14888015
looks great other than the pole in the middle haha

KirkS518 wrote in post #14888113
What he said. Now you get to practice your cloning skills!

Staring right at me and I never noticed it

Pole? What pole

Whats wrong with the pole???

If you look closely...I would have clone that guy standing right next to the tree instead of the pole....hehehe With or without pole, I likey the shot for the simple reason that it's not overcooked unlike others I've seen. Nicely done, Mark.

Thanks Pat. Quite right, I deliberately wanted to start with a simple shot, I'm not up to attempting anything complex in this new (to me) area of photography yet.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #14888275
Looks pretty good and balanced to me. If you were to 'finish' the shot, you would level the horizon and clone out the pole as discussed. Also--do I see the transition line above the horizon ?

Sorry I missed this comment, you must have overlapped one of my replies.

Thanks. I didn't know the horizon needed levelling (but then I've always been hopeless at drawing straight lines) which way and by how much?
You possibly can see the transition line above the horizon, yes. I used a soft brush with the eraser tool in PS to expose the foreground. I did it carefully so is there a better method?

In this case, where there is a small strip of blue color at the horizon, you could add a hue/saturation adjustment layer. Use the color picker to select the blue (it will choose cyan) and then reduce that colors saturation.

Here's a quick example...I also increased contrast a bit and lowered the brightness.

/\Thanks for taking the time Navydoc, points noted

You asked in one of your other posts if there was a better method than using the eraser tool.
I don't know if this method is better but it is an alternative , I have found with photoshop that there is usually more than one way of achieving the end result ,it depends on what method you are happy with.
I appreciate this is overcooked but this is to show the effect and as you have image editing turned on I have had a play so I hope you dont take offence.
All done using CS5, I don't know if other versions have the same tools

/\ That's really helpful Chris, thanks for taking the time, I'll print those stages and methods and try them for myself