I have the "Before" but..

[KodiakStar]

I need help on the "After"


This is one of my favorite shots I took when exploring around Monument Valley, however my Polarizing Filter created the odd sky gradient. I tried playing around to make it more even, but didn't seem to get it to look "natural"

Any help here? I only have, and use GIMP, and would love to get a play-by-play of how you were able to fix it, if you can!

Thank you all for your time!

[OsmosisStudios]

The trick with a polarizer is that it affects the sky at 90 degrees from the sun. As such, in this case the sun would have been just off to your right, ahead of you.

What that means is that your sky wont be even. You would have to have the sun to your direct right (3 o'clock) or direct left (9 o'clock) to get the effect you want.

Your best option would be to find a similarly lit sky, or make your own and replace it

[photofun]

Kodiak, this is beautiful. I'm still learning my way around Gimp and I tried playing with it but just can't get it to work just right. Try cutting the sky out and then from a duplicate layer, cut a retangular area from the right side of the sky and use the scale tool to make it larger. Replace the cut out sky with the part that you enlarged. There's probably some way to do that with masks but I just can't figure that out. Good Luck!

[dlaf]

Hey K* what a grand shot! Here's what I'd try in my PSP.

Duplicate the shot and make it a layer
"Mirror" the copy (this will make the sky even on both sides
Make that layer soft light or overlay (whatever works) OR just play with opacity
Erase all below the horizon from the top layer
Use some dodging / desaturating on the sky to lighten it up where appropriate.

I couldn't copy the shot from flickr to play with, so hope some of this works.

Debbie

[kelleyrie]

I quite like the way the sky looks here

[Nathan deGargoyle]

Easy enough to level out the sky.

Set foreground colour to the darkest part of the sky and bg to the lightest
. gradient> fg -> bg

Run it from lightest part ot darkest on a new layer. Mask out the foregrounnd. play with opacity.



Personally I prefer your before.

[RexK_Cozumel]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

As such, in this case the sun would have been just off to your right, ahead of you.

Look at the photo the sun was not off the right.

[FGPhotography]

Is this what you were looking for? I didn't completely understand what you were looking for, but this is what I came to...

If it is, I duplicated layer, cut the sky out of the second layer and feathered it - and then I flipped the layer (sky) horizontal, put the opacity to 39%, flattened layer and posted it here

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by RexK_Cozumel

Look at the photo the sun was not off the right.

Respectfully, I was right.

It was to the right, but further ahead. Sort of halfway between 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock

[KodiakStar]

Sorry to get in the middle of all of it... but it was actually to the left, and behind... Roughly 8 o'clock.

I'll have to practice some of those methods to mirror the results, great ideas and jobs everyone, thanks for helping me learn something new