Let’s say I have this picture https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4syjw703nmfdmn/DSC_0925.NEF?dl=0 the sky in the background is too bright. I would like to make it much dark to be more dramatic just like storm is coming, meanwhile keep the foreground church bright enough with good contrast.
I tried 2 solutions so far, but not satisfying yet.
- I added a graduated density filter to cover sky and push density to some high value. The sky is darkened but the church tower and body parts have different lightness now. It is a bit tricky to bring them to the same brightness.
- I used 2 exposure modules and luminosity mask in each. The first exposure module’s luminosity mask targets sky, and I lower the exposure. The second exposure module’s luminosity mask targets anything other than sky, and I increase the exposure. But the consequence is that the halo around church tower becomes very ugly, and the trees on right side of the picture has strong fringe developed. But at least the church tower and body are same in terms of brightness.
I run out of idea in darktable, what can I do to darken sky and still make it seamless?