before (reference jpeg):
after (MRW - Minolta RAW format):
Okay, here's what I did. . .
the sky looked washed out in the picture. Really needed to boost the colors at the horizon.
RAW File edit:
Raised the exposure and contrast a little bit, black levels to about half way
Raised Clarity, Vibrance, Recovery, and boosted the sharpness amount, detail and the radius to to keep it from getting grainy
In PSE7
Plugin layers:
(PhotoWiz)
Contrast Master (Layer: 27% Opacity)
Boost the definition and shadows.
(PhotoWiz)
Focal Blade (Layer 20% opacity)
sharpened the edges (1 pixel radius - Gaussian), softened the surface (2.7 pixel radius - Gaussian) and brought down the white halo
turned the Contrast Master layer off as the combination of the two boosted the contrast too much. Relied on the Focal Blade layer for both filters.
Levels layer:(opacity 30%)
pushed both the shadows and midtones to the right to deepen the shadows and mids.
Hue & Saturation Layer:(100% Opacity)
Really boosted the saturation to bring back the orange in the horizon.
Then I masked out the blue section of the sky to remove the saturation and set up a small gradient between the orange horizon and blue sky/cloud layer.
Clouds are a little too blue and a little too "pseudo HDR" looking, but the horizon is pretty close.