[PRODIG] fix polarized sky in panoramic image

[Frank S.]

I am trying to even up a clear blue sky made with a wideangle and polarizer that has objectionable darkening in the right hand side of a panoramic image. the sky is a nice blue on the left of image and gradually gets darker as you look to the far right of the image. Previously to Photoshop I would either accept this or not use a Polarizing filter, which makes the gradation much stronger (But then the rest of the Landscape suffers). I have tried simply dodging the image to make it more even, but this is extraordinarily difficult! Much more so than dodging a colour image by hand in the darkroom. As the skys gradation is so even the slightest uneveness in dodging shows up as blotchiness. I have tried dodging it with a graduated mask but that doesn't improve things much either. (maybe I'm not doing it right) Replacing the sky is not an option either as its an ocean scene that nearly merges at the horizon with very subtle gradations from the top of the scene to the water as well. At first I thought that this would be a simple straightforward problem to solve, but the subtle gradations involved are very sensitive to my "tampering" with nature. I have read somewhere of a similar problem extending a graded black background behind a studio subject to make an image fit a page layout, and there was some fancy work involved to make the transition invisible. Of course I can't remember where I read it, just that there is a solution! I'm using PS 6.0 and a Wacom tablet for my dodging etc. Any help or suggestions on this would be appreciated! Frank from Australia.