RapidRAW Logo RapidRAW
by Timon Käch
Verified in v1.5.4
Documentation Menu

Edit a Sunset Landscape

This tutorial takes a typical "shot into the sun" landscape from a flat, slightly underexposed RAW to a finished image with depth, color, and a nice atmosphere. The whole edit takes about two minutes once you know the moves.

Original RAW: a sunset landscape with a blown sky and dark foreground
Before: out-of-camera RAW.
Finished edit: balanced exposure, recovered sky, deeper foreground
After: full edit.

What we're trying to fix

  • The colors are unrealistic near the sun.
  • The foreground is too dark to read.
  • The whole image looks flat because of the high dynamic range.
  • The colors are muted compared to what the scene actually looked like.

1. Set the global exposure

Open the Adjustments panel (D) and look at the histogram (toggle with A if it isn't visible).

Slider Set to Why
Exposure +1.4 Lifts the midtones without pushing the sky further into clipping.

2. Recover the sky and open the foreground

The classic four-slider rescue:

Slider Set to Why
Highlights −20 Pulls the sky back from clipping; sun shape and clouds reappear.
Whites −20 Adds extra ceiling-recovery on the brightest pixels.
Shadows +30 Opens up the dark foreground.
Blacks +20 Lifts crushed shadows without flattening the whole image.

After this step the photo will look noticeably flatter. That's expected; the next step adds punch back.

3. Restore midtone contrast

Slider Set to Why
Contrast +25 Adds global midtone separation.

Optional refinement with Curves: drop a Luma curve point at input ~80 down a bit, and a point at input ~180 up a bit, for an S-curve that doesn't re-clip the recovered tones.

4. Warm it up & bring color back

Sunsets feel warmer than the camera typically captures them.

Slider Set to Why
Temperature +12 Pushes whites slightly toward orange.
Tint +4 A whisper of magenta for that "golden hour" feel.
Vibrance +15 Rebuilds color saturation, especially in the muted sky.
Saturation +5 A small global lift on top.

5. Selective sky deepening (optional)

For a more dramatic sky without making the foreground oversaturated:

  1. Open Masks (M) → + New Mask → Sky.
  2. Wait for the AI to finish (a few seconds, runs on the CPU).
  3. With the sky mask selected: - Saturation +20 - Luminance −10 (in the HSL Color Mixer's Blues, or just use mask Exposure −0.3)

6. Final polish

Slider Set to Why
Clarity +15 Adds depth in the cloud shadows.
Vignette → Amount −20 Subtle corner darkening to hold the eye in the frame.

7. Save it

If you'll edit other photos from the same shoot the same way, save it as a Style preset in the Presets panel (P → + New Preset, name it something like "Sunset Warm").

For one-off application to other photos in this folder, Ctrl+C then select the others and Ctrl+V.

Recap

  • Exposure for overall brightness, Highlights / Shadows / Whites / Blacks for the dynamic-range rescue, Contrast to add the punch back, Temperature / Vibrance for color, Sky mask for selective drama, Vignette for finish.
  • Save as a Style preset if you want to reuse it.

See also