I need help with this one

[Nicole]

Yeah, I agree with Todd. With a bit of work you can change that blue to something that matches the sky better. Hope it's ok, but I did a bit of work on it to see what it would look like and came up with this:



What I did was:
1. Duplicated the original layer and adjusted the hue/saturation of the blue channel (added a bit to the selection by clicking on one of the blue areas of rock) and changed it essentially to yellow (+180). Then I set the opacity of this layer to 80%
2. It seemed too yellow, so I added a photo filter layer with a warming filter
3. It still seemed too yellow, but it was getting there, so I did a selective colour adjustment to the yellow channel and increased the amount of magenta (+60)
4. The green of the plant finally seemed to stand out just a bit too much, so I did a hue / saturation adjustment layer over the top of the whole thing with an adjustment to the green channel (Saturation: -20, Lightness: -17).

Still seems a bit yellow in the hills, but hopefully this gives you an idea of where you can go with it.

[Tiberius]

Originally Posted by windrider86

YES< YES< YES I am interested! thank you

1. First of all, bring in the the sky you want to use as a replacement (it can be a different picture or an adjusted exposure of the same picture) and position it where you want it.
2. Create a layer mask for the sky layer.
3. Now duplicate the background layer.
4. You need a black and white version of this duplicated layer that has as much contrast between the part you want to keep (in this case the canyon) and the part you want to mask out (in this case the washed out sky). We're going to use the duplicated layer for this. We can use a simple desaturate command to make the black and white version, but often the Channel mixer will give you better results. You can use just a single channel, or mix channels together. You can also use levels to increase the contrast. Don't worry if there is detail away from the edges, we can fix that later. All we have to worry about is the edge between where we are masking and where we are not masking. Also, be careful to avoid the "jaggies".
5. Once the edge has been made, choose a soft edged brush, set it to black, and paint inside the mask. For example, in this case, we'd be painting where the canyon is. You only need to paint where there is still some detail in the b/w image. Just stay away from the edges of the masked area, especially if you are using this technique for hair.
6. Now change the blending mode of the brush to OVERLAY and paint VERY CAREFULLY closer to the edges. The aim is not to get a hard edge, because this will look fake.
7. Once this is done, we have our mask. All we have to do now is place it into the layer mask of the sky layer. To do this, select the B/W layer we just made, then Select All, then Copy. (You can do this via the menus or via the keyboard shortcuts, whichever way you prefer).
8. Now ALT-click on the layermask of the Sky layer. The image will go white - what we are seeing is the layer mask itself.
9. Now, use the paste command, and the b/w layer we made will be placed on the layer mask.
10. Now deselect the visibilty eye on the b/w layer.
11. If all went well, the layer mask should be hiding the sky where the foreground is (the canyon) but allowing the sky to show where the layer mask is white.

Depending on the specifics, such as which of the images you use to make the layer mask, you may need to invert the b/w layer before applying it as a layer mask. If you apply it and the mask needs to be inverted, you can invert it while it is a mask.

This technique can be a little tricky. It's well worth experimenting with. Sometimes it is easier to just draw the layer mask, but with subjects such as hair, this way will give a more realistic result.

[windrider86]

yikes, sound srather complicated but am sure gonna give it a try tomorrow after work. Thank you so much!

[windrider86]

Yeah, I agree with Todd. With a bit of work you can change that blue to something that matches the sky better. Hope it's ok, but I did a bit of work on it to see what it would look like and came up with this:

Nicole of course its ok. I appreciate all the help i can get. I'm just learning all this and cant tell you how helpful this forum has been to me

[jiminyClickit]

Nicole,

You have the knack, or you've found the knack. That's a believable combination. The one area I would have question on, is lower center, the reflection in the water being so much brighter than the sky suggests. windrider86 would be the eyes to ask if overhead sky was much brighter than horizon. Really good color choices there.

[Aaron.French]

windrider86, when you take a shot with a long exposure like this one you should enable Noise Reduction on your E-500. It will really help get a clearer exposure, it'll get rid of red/blue/white speckles that are throughout the image. It makes post production easier as well since you don't have to match the oddities in your own modified areas.

A smaller aperture would help get rid of the depth of field difference of your foreground and your background. Also something to consider when you take a shot like this with a large variance in dynamic range take another exposure (much shorter one) and you can blend the well exposed sky with the well exposed subject.

Kind of unhelpful in your current situation but just some thoughts for any future shoots you do : )

[windrider86]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful advice. I hadnt attempted taking a picture in the dark before so i tried all kinds of different settings. Altho I had a tripod a good portion of them seemed to come out blurry.
This is the one I liked the best out of all of them. Wish i could go back and do it again but theres always the next bridge i can expierment on