This tutorial is aimed at photographers who are just getting their feet wet with photo editing software. TONS of photographers are drawn to the classic sunset landscape photo. It is easily one of my favorite things to photograph. Since the sun is typically somewhere in front of you, it can be hard to get the right exposure with a single shot. It is easy to wind up with a shot that has a nice sky above the horizon but everything below the horizon is black (or vice versa). This is where I would like to offer some words of post-production wisdom.
In this tutorial, I will try to outline one of the tricks I use all the time to make the portions above and below the horizon match better exposure-wise. Back in the day (before digital photography) you would probably need to invest in a graduated neutral density filter that would put on your lens and then go shooting but this is not only pricey, but you need a camera like an SLR or similar professional sort of camera to use these filters. Nowadays you can use any digital camera and some software to produce the same effect as the filters. For this tutorial, I am using photos shot with my trusty Nikon D90.