Enhance Sunsets in Photoshop Elements

This one can make for a truly beautiful picture!

• Select the area that you want the sunset effect to appear in.
• Add a Gradient Layer by clicking on the half-black half-white circle near the top of the Layers Palette.  (The Gradient Adjustment is not the same as the Gradient Map Adjustment.
• Ok, take a deep breath.  This next part is involved.
• Double click on the Adjustment Layer Thumbnail.  This is the first box on your new layer.  A Gradient Fill box should pop up.
• Double click on the box next to the word Gradient in the Gradient Fill box.

• Refer to the following illustration in the Gradient Editor:

• There will be a bar with four symbols that look almost like crayons around it.  The top “Crayons” are Transparency Stops and the bottom “Crayons” are Color Stops.  Click once on the right Transparency Stop and change its opacity to 100% in the section under the color bar.
• Click once on the left Color Stop.  To change the color of this stop, double click on the Color box in the section under the color bar and type ff4302 in the # box of the resulting Select Stop Color dialogue.  Hit OK.

• Click once below the middle of the bar so that another Color Stop appears.  Change the color of this stop to ffa200, as you did in step 7, and hit ok.  Make sure that Location, next to the Color box, says 50%.
• Click once on the right Color Stop, double click on the Color box and change the # fied to f3caac.  Hit Ok three times.
• The worst part is behind you!  Change the blending mode of this layer to Multiply and adjust its opacity to taste.
• If it looks better to you to have the darker oranges and reds at the top of the sky rather than the horizon, double click again on the Adjustment Layer Thumbnail and check the Reverse box.