Before and after

This is the Cuckmere valley - long ago I made a quilt, largely with black net, based on Bill Brandt's photo of this scene. Then one day we got in the car and looked for the scene shown in the photo.

Just the other day, driving home from elsewhere, we suddenly came across the scene again - I got some shots out the car window. You'll agree that the foreground was very dark in the original: a digital camera will insist on doing this, trying to "grey" the colour in the entire picture.

Thanks to the Gradient tool in Photoshop, however, the foreground can be lightened and the sky kept its original colour. (I've just learned how to use this, and very useful it is!)

Now have a look at Brandt's photo, and how well (and subtly) his foreground works -