Layer mask power

One of the images I envisioned during the recent photo tour to the lavender fields in France was a perfect sunrise coming over the manicured rows of purple flowers. Although we had great sunrise and sunset shooting locations, I wasn't able to find the ideal scenario for my mentally conceived picture. So, I made it happen using two separate images. In this way, I could position the sun exactly as I wanted it. The challenge was to retain the full glow of the sun as it bled onto the flowers. To do this, I used a layer mask and the gradient tool. The steps in brief: 1) paste the sunrise shot over the lavender image with Select > all; Edit > paste. 2) move the layer in place with the move tool. 3) create a layer mask with Layer > layer mask > reveal all; 4) choose the gradient tool and drag the cursor from just below the sun to the top of the frame -- repeat until the blend of the two images is perfect. It takes a few attempts to get it right. Both images, the flowers and the sunrise, were photographed with a wide angle lens and f/22.