Thanks to you both for great insight. I have been thinking more about it, and have been looking at more photos shot with gradients. I totally understand, "get it right in the camera," my first photographic love was culture photography where I whould set up a shot and wait for the perfect element, ie. person, animal, cart etc.. to enter the frame. And I also understand the preservation of the data when it comes to digital photography. Now I am wondering this, how much does a straight horizon on the gradient filter actually take away from the "reality" of the photo, versus the ability to follow angles in PS? Data loss versus having some mountain tops and treetops darkened. Maybe I just do not know how well a gradient filter can behave. Anothethought, is HDR the way go? HDR is capturing 3 to 5 times the data, so the data loss with the ps gradient filter would not be so severe. I am not well versed in HDR either, but it seems like a lot of the goals are the same.
Thanks,
Mike