Challenge of color and mood matching in HDR

[subrataofkris]

The Original Foreground (Shot#1)
This was taken in morning on a clear day, I liked the formation but I forgot to use Polarizer and sky got washed out.


The Sky (Shot#2)
This was taken on the previous day's sunrise in a cloudy sky. I liked the sun peeping through the dramatic cloud formation


The Final Result
Merged the above two shots.


Process
I used Photoshop to merge the two shots.
In shot 1, I copied the background in a new layer - foreground
I selected the foreground using the Magic Wand first and then used the pen tool to add or subtract to the selection. I used feather size 1.
I saved this selection, inversed it and deleted the rest (washed out sky)
I opened shot 2, copied it and pasted it in Shot 1 as a new layer - sky
In the combined shot, I made foreground the top layer
I carefully blurred the edges in this layer (foreground)

The Challenge
The biggest challange was to bring the colours closer, the sky was very dark, the foreground was bright and had more yellow.
In the sky layer, I used selective color and levels to make it brighter, increased the magenta and yellow from red and decreased the blue
In the forground, I did the reverse
I did this process a number of times, till the colours came close

I still feel the matching is not looking natural, may be because I have seen both the shots. Do you think the overall shot has improved? Do I need to do anything else for making the shot better? Is my PP technique ok?

Please help.

Thanks,

[Saralonde]

I think it looks pretty good and yes, I think you improved the shot. Thanks for listing all your steps.

[dlaf]

Really cool! Have you tried adding a layer of maybe a pinkish color over the final version to tie in both top and bottom?

[sk66]

I think you improved the picture, and it looks good.
The only "problem" I see is that the "feeling" of the sky doesn't quite go with the "feeling" of the foreground. The foreground has more contrast because it was taken on a bright day; it has a "sunnier feel". The background has a darker feel to it. There seems to be a little bit of a harsh transition between the two.

I would probably have tried to boost the contrast in the sky to make it "feel" more like "clouds trying to block the sun" rather than the "sun trying to get thru the clouds" if that makes any sense..

[Japaslavian]

Well, this isn't really HDR but...

I might agree that it looks a tiny bit abnormal. I think for me the two biggest giveaways are the bright sand that sk66 was hinting at, and the heavy reflections of the water because the water shouldn't be reflecting light so harshly, especially when the sun is behind it and being diffused through clouds. BUT you did a great job and not leaving behind any seams or hard edges in the replacement, so I think you could safely get away with it had you not mentioned your switcheroo.

[subrataofkris]

Originally Posted by Saralonde

I think it looks pretty good and yes, I think you improved the shot. Thanks for listing all your steps.

Thank you Saralonde, a pat on the back from you inspires me a lot to experiment.

[subrataofkris]

Originally Posted by dlaf

Really cool! Have you tried adding a layer of maybe a pinkish color over the final version to tie in both top and bottom?

I have not added any pink layer, but played around with the selective colour layer to change the magenta, cyan and black % in red and yellow colours.

[subrataofkris]

Japaslavian and sk66 - Thanks a lot for sparing some time, I agree with you that the match is not looking very natural, thanks for pointing out the bright waves, which seems to be a serious negligence on my part. I will definitely try to push the contrast in the sky and see how it looks.