Photo taken in the port area of Skopelos, from here it is a small rocky beach behind a walkway from the port. I made this photo at sunset from a series of bracketed shot, where I applied focus stacking between the rocks that are in the foreground and the hill which is seen in the background. I take 5 bracketed shots per series but I decided to use only 3 for it
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I opened my bracketed shots series in Photoshop and I align them for blending (for more information about focus stacking blending please read this article). At the end of this process, I create a series of three shots aligned and ready for edits. I applied luminosity masks to use darks to lighten the foreground, then increased contrast with midtones 3 applied to curves
Using my panel I launched dodge and burn to make some adjustments on the rocks and on the sea, then I launched orton effect to increase glow and darken the image. Next, I create some color correction using lab color and hue/saturation to adjust blues and yellows, then increased contrast again to have more highlighs and more darkenss on the foreground. As always In applied details and sharpness to the entire frame, without including the sea. As a final touch using camera raw I lowered the exposure and raised slightly up the shadows
TECNHNICAL STUFF
Camera: Nikon D-800
Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)
Five Exposures (-2; -1; 0; +1; +2) x2
ISO: 100 at f/7,1
Software: Photoshop CC2017
Extensions: TTS Fast Panel