I am having trouble editing this image to my liking. I want to accentuate blue hour, yet have the moose clearly visible.
Note there is also a lot of fringing to deal with as I used a vintage Konica Hexanon 57mm f1.4. I don’t recall exactly, but I probably took it at f/1.8 or f/2.
In local adjustments: For the sky you can use the chromaticity of the Colour and Light module and to lighten the moose a little more you can use the Logarithmic Encoding module.
I don’t know if either of these renditions are close to what you wished to achieve.
The first is a blend of exposures, -1 to +2 EV, using Enfuse. The second is that result after “tweaking” in GIMP using luminosity masks.
A couple of quick edits… relative render a bit more contrasted… ie the first one… too crushed I think… I prefer the second one…tried to make the moose for of the scene and some color to it and get some definition in the trees and the shore… could quickly make the sky more blue with a gradient and some blue hue but i liked the sky against the blue mountains…
The first one is very natural looking, but I was hoping for a bit more color. Of course it is a very fine line to walk… One that I am having trouble with myself.
As one who likes paintings more than photos, and usually aims for something slightly more painterly than realistic with my edits, I take this as a compliment
That being said, I really don’t understand your perspective, as it still looks like a very natural scene to me? Or is it because it’s too colourful compared to what your eyes saw? Hard for me to judge that, not being there when it was taken.