I did not use any masks, I used the tone equalizer to lower the highlights. I think it is faster and more straightforward, I love the feature where you can click on the masks area below the tone eq and then hover the mouse over the image and use scrollwheel to darken or brighten the current EV under the cursor.
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Does that “all in all” mean that you are not so focused on the “mid-gray”?
DSCF4053_03.raf.xmp (44.1 KB)
Thanks for the great advise from all of you. I have learned a lot. Here is my attempt to combine drama in the sky with detail in the foreground and a not too dark and dull overall image. I am starting to use more masks then the usual gradient mask.
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What is mid grey? 
On a normal day gras is around mid grey. But how does gras look at night? Still mid grey? That would for sure look quite strange. Asthethics is hard to calculate. Mid grey, rule of thirds and whatever else are tools to help you. None of that tools will guarantee you anything. They are here to help you a bit. But in the end you have to use more your feeling (which you have to train, by actively watching) than your brain when it comes to art and asthethics.
So to answer you question more directly: no, I done’t care about mid grey that much.
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I realize that the questions are rhetorical but, out of interest, I looked for mid-grays with the GIMP threshold function:
Mid-gray is 118/255 in grayscale 8-bit sRGB terms. The above image shows pixels in the range 116 to 120 as white and all others as black, for what that is worth …
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A further edit, trying to keep it bright and natural yet still interesting.
DSCF4053.raf.xmp (21,3 KB)
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DSCF4053.raf.xmp (15.3 KB)
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GIMP.
This must be my third or fourth attempt at this image and yet I cannot achieve the result I desire!
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DSCF4053.raf.xmp (13.7 KB)
Agx and noticed the new highlight mode in the exposure module… still need to experment with this…looks like its reading something in the metadata …some images don’t have it
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DSCF4053-2.jpg.out.pp3 (15,3 KB)
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ngl, I found this one challenging. Chose a more understated look than a lot of the attempts here, though I think the light rays look nice
DSCF4053.raf.xmp (15.5 KB)
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