Week 30 good to WOW Edit Sunset

Wow!  I didn't know ACR had so many options, well, mine doesn't, still fascinating!  I learned a lot more about the sliders I do have and when each slider is useful even if I didn't use them for today's edits.  You should check out the video Ashley posted if you haven't already.  Anyway, here are my edits for this week's shoot and edit.

Original:

Edit:

Straighten and Crop.  Fill Color a "rusty" color--masked off the top of the sky.  Fill Color a bright blue--masked off of the middle orange part of the sky.  Then a levels layer to bring up the blacks but partially masked off of the river and part of the orange part of the sky.  Resize and sharpen for web.

Original:

Edit:

I basically did the same with this image, except instead of a levels layer I opened it in ACR to boost the blacks and I didn't mask off any of the rusty layer.  Usually I crop to retain my 4x6 ratio, but that crop ratio didn't work with my horizon very well and I actually really like the expansive feel I get from a more panoramic crop.

So there you have it.  I'd love to go back again when I have more time to experiment, but in the meantime happy editing!  Now I'm off to view everyone else's sunset edits; there are lots of gorgeous photos.