Correcting exposure, dynamic & color in Photoshop

Select a Curves adjustment layer (found at the bottom of the layer pallet, black/white circle icon)

Bring up your Histogram pallet as well so you can view both the result (histogram) and your Curve.

Create a S curve so the curve goes above the default diagonal line and the curves also goes under the default line like in my example.

The S Curve attempts to make the dark area brighter (the curve should be above the default line on the left side) and darken the sky (the curve should be below the default line on the right side)

Uncheck “Preview” if you want to compare before and after.

Continue to adjust the photo until the foreground looks brighter and the sky looks darker but not too much where it looks unnatural.

Copy Merge (it will copy ALL visible pixels instead of just the current active layer like the regular Copy functions)

Paste, it will create a new layer based on the copied information.

Select Hue/Saturation from Image-Adjustments

Increase the Saturation and adjust the Hue position, don’t worry if the color looks unnatural.

Use burn to deepen any area that is not overly saturated such as the sky.

All the color information is transferred on to the background layer.

Lower the Opacity (on top of the layer pallet) if the color is too saturated.

Add a Curves adjustment layer. (Found at the bottom of the layer pallet)

Pull the curve up until you can see more details on the foreground.

Click on the Mask icon of your Curve adjustment layer (the white box between the layer name and the curve Icon.

Select a large soft edged brush and start painting on the sky (this only work if you have clicked on the Mask icon from the last step)

If you turn the Curve visibility off you will see the differences.

I lowered the color layer some more to unsaturated it some more.

Play around with Hue/Saturation (found in the Image-adjustment menu) some more until you get a color you like.