new sky behind trees

[windrider86]

Before the sky was too blown out and the the whole picture was blah:


I took a picture of clouds, pasted it as a new layer. Lowered the opacity so it wasnt quite so blue. Created a mask layer from the orginal photo. (which I learned how to do from this forum txs guys) painted over the branch areas with black so it brought them back to thier original state. flattened layers. Used an adjustment layer using curves to bring out the colors a little. a did some burning around the grass areas.
After:

[chins]

Excellent work. I would tried to saturate the colors.

[windrider86]

at first I thought nah but then thought I'd try saturating it and here's that version

[sk66]

This is an excellent picture...I'd love to see this in a large format.
I prefer the saturated version....The only issue I have is that the trees tend to almost blend with the cloud at this resolution, but I think that would go away at larger image size...
Maybe the cloud layer could have been a bit darker...

[windrider86]

I thought about that but thought it wouldnt match as the trees toward the back are pretty bright

[romerol]

dunno i think the trees are too sad for that happy cloudy sky

[Sir Alain]

Nice work! I like it better after the saturation.

[Alex168]

I like it better the first way seems to blend in better, looks more real to my eye.

Nice going there! If you wouldn't have told me it was a fake sky i wouldn't have noticed

p.s. i have a folder with only SKY/Cloud images just in case i get a overexposed sky!

[prince]

I have tried adding sky to some of my pics and never ever got it right.. finally have had to scrap the ideas... grrrrr...

So I know it involves some good practice...

I like the work.. but the colors don't feel right for some reason.. The burning of trees made the photo look better..

Good work!!

[xxpinballxx]

biggest thing in adding sky is the lighting on the clouds and making it match the lighting of the landscape. Also the scale of the clouds makes a huge difference.....
ITs a fun trick though......really can save some photos too where the subject is great but sky is blown.....
WInd i like the saturated one the best.....I'd grey the sky a just a tad though, seems a bit blue....just me and in its present state is still a great work!