The problem in using the sunset/sunrise photo is that the lighting on the subject buildings should be from the back. But your eye can clearly see from which direction the light is coming in the 'foreground' photo -- and it is not from the back.

In the Tybee photo, the side of the building towards the left should 'reflect' the sky color -- and the windows would have an even more pronounced reflection.

In the Bald Head shot, the coloration of the foreground photo doesn't match the sunset sky colors. That is, it there were an orange cast to the sky, everything illuminated by that sky would have a warm coloration. Instead, we see a 'daylight' look.

See Greg's photo of Marshal Point at the top of the page. Sunrise/sunset sky affects all the colors. We may know the rails are white, but they are the same 'color' as the water and highest part of the sky with highlights of orange.

Try taking the Bald Head and change the color balance on the foreground photo to a warmer color.


I don't have any problem changing the sky in a gray cloud cover day into a blue sky w/clouds one. Or even enhancing a sunset/sunrise photo with greater saturation or skewing the colors towards purple or orange.

You've done a very good job of outlining the foreground photos in preparation for the layering.

The eye is so hard to fool because we have a lifetime of knowing what things look like. The difference in the tones between the sky and foregrounds in these examples is 'jarring' to us because we know it looks unnatural, although we may not be conscious of why it looks unnatural.

Keep at it.