Mr Silo

[CTE]

This was shot at 8:00PM on an overcast early evening. I saw the smile and had to shoot it. I used PSE 5.0

Before: Resizing is all that I did to this one.



I want to learn so I was looking for instructions to replace skys and found this site so I tried to do it and it worked. I followed the instruction step for step and the process is surprisingly simple, The author (Sue Chasten) provided before and after images to use however I had my own.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pse...acedullsky.htm

Open both images in either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and begin the tutorial.

1.) First, we want to make sure we preserve our original image, so activate the t36-badsky.jpg image, go to File > Save As and save a copy as newsky.jpg.

2.) Use the magic wand tool and click in the sky area of the image. This will not select all of the sky, but that's OK. Next, go to Select > Similar. This should add the rest of the sky area to the selection.

3.) Make sure your layers palette is visible. Go to Window > Layers if it is not. In the layers palette, double click on the background layer. This will convert the background to a layer and prompt you for a layer name. You can name it 'People' and click OK.

4.) Now the sky should still be selected so you can press delete on your keyboard to erase the boring sky.

5.) Go to the t36-replacementsky.jpg image and press Ctrl-A to select all, then Ctrl-C to copy.

6.) Activate the newsky.jpg image and press Ctrl-V to paste.

Next go to the layers palette and drag layer 1 below the background layer.

The majority of our work is done and we could stop here but there are some things I don't like about the image as it is now. For one thing, there are some obvious fringe pixels that don't blend well around the dark hair on the two people on the right. Also the sky darkens the picture too much and overall it just looks faked. Let's see what we can do to make it better...

Adding an Adjustment Layer

If you've ever observed the sky, you may have noticed that the blue color is lighter the closer it is to the horizon and the sky darkens farther away from the horizon. Because of the way my sky photo was shot, you do not see this effect in the photo. We will create that effect with an adjustment layer mask.

8.) In the layers palette, click on the Sky layer, then click the new adjustment layer button (the half black/half white circle at the bottom of the layers palette) and add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. When the Hue/Saturation dialog box appears, just click OK for now, without changing any settings.

9.) Notice in the layers palette the new adjustment layer has a second thumbnail to the right of the Hue/Saturation thumbnail. This is the adjustment layer's mask.

Selecting a Gradient for a Mask

10.) Click directly on the mask thumbnail to activate it. From the toolbox, select the Gradient tool (G).

11.) In the options bar, choose the black to white gradient preset, and the icon for a linear gradient. Mode should be normal, opacity 100%, reverse unchecked, dither and transparency checked.

Editing the Gradient

12.) Now click directly on the gradient in the options bar to bring up the gradient editor. We are going to make a slight change to our gradient.

13.) In the gradient editor, double-click the lower left stop marker on the gradient preview.

14.)In the HSB section of the color picker, change the B value to 20% to change the black to a dark gray.

15.) Click OK out of the color picker and OK out of the gradient editor.

Using the Gradient to Mask the Adjustment Layer

16.) Now click at the very top of the sky, press the shift key, and drag straight down. Release the mouse button right about at the top of the little girl's head.

17.) The mask thumbnail in the layers palette should show this gradient fill now, though your image will not have changed.

Adjusting the Hue and Saturation

By adding a layer mask, we can apply the adjustment more in some areas and less in other. Where the mask is black, the adjustment will not affect the layer at all. Where the mask is white, it will show the adjustment 100%. To learn more about masks, see my article, All About Masks.

18.) Now double click the regular layer thumbnail for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Drag the Hue slider to -20, Saturation to +30, and Lightness to +80 and notice how the sky changes as you slide. See how the lower portion of the sky is more affected that the upper portion?

I played with these settings and am still not satisfied with the saturation.

19.) With these values, click OK to the Hue/Saturation dialog.

The Final Result!



I hope this is not to long. Carl

[arphot]

A very cool and interesting work. Thanks for sharing the process.

[prince]

Burning my hands while trying to add sky, I understand how detailed it can be and how difficult it is to get the right blend.

You've got a very good result and the sky blends well. If you look closely, the edges on the trees and the right side houses are too sharp. I've had this problem too. I guess it just needs practice.

Nice work

[Loose_Canon]

Good job - looks great!