sky replacement

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

some may have seen my thread in the 'general chat' section about replacing the sky i another photo. i took that idea onto another photo and got a FANTASTIC result. the original sky was far too blown out and made my squint alot, so i got rid of it.

BEFORE




AFTER



what i did was create two layer with the original photo. and in between them i placed a layer with a gradient filled blue. i then rubbed out the old sky on the top layer leaving the blue sky. the bottom layer was merely so i could just start fresh if i needed to.

[RoyL]

Your worked image looks a lot better though I can only see the size that you have placed up. Would be nice to see a larger version to see how the transition worked but it does look natural.

Here is a case where placing the horizon center, and also not straight, actually works because of the rock formations. It just goes to show that rules are made to be broken

I would suggest that the water could be enhanced a bit as it looks a bit cold compared to the sky but it still looks ok as is.

Nice work.

[fletch]

The central horizon is OK but I would straighten it. It detracts from the good job you have done on the sky.

[dcclark]

I'll admit that I came to this thread thinking "oh dear, sky replacements never go well..." -- but yours definitely looks good! I too would love to see a larger size. It is interesting to see how different the water looks between the original and the edited version: just the presence of the blue sky appears to change the water.

[vsa]

Ok job on the leaves although you can clearly see from the larger image that you've done something to them (edges are bit harder than normal and some leaves are almost cut away). Cutting leaves out is hard though... at least if you don't want to spend two hours pen tooling them or something.

The sky to me looks like a warm summer sky, other parts look more like the cloudy grayish day of the original. So they don't quite go together. I would try darkening the water a bit. I tried how it would look.

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

oh yea. thanks for that. i shall try that pronto. you should be able to click on the images to go larger.. i thought i made it so i could do that, i dunno im not sure what you mean about the leaves and pen tool.. they look pretty clear at full res.

[vsa]

Pen tool is precise for extracting distinct shapes but can be time consuming.

Did you use select color range for this one or channels or what?
And what comes to the leaves..... http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7771/leaves.jpg
(you can't see that in the smaller sizes though)

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

oh well the leaves that float... they kinda did that in the original one when zoomed in to 800ish%

and i was using the rubber tool at 1pixel at time.. the same as pen.. so i wouldn't have made any difference

no i didn't use any kind of colour range or channels or any of that.... i don't even know what that is.. i just use the eye dropper tool to get the colour from another photo with a sky VERY SIMILAR to this. and gradient filled the layer.

[vsa]

Rubber isn't anything like pen tool. You might be referring to Pencil. Pen tool is vector based tool.

I suggest learning the use of channels, masks and other stuff. Would've saved you bunch of time getting rid of the sky. And please don't be discouraged by my comments. You did ok job on the it but everyone can learn more and do something better. Keep on messing with Photoshop.

[GeekyBird]

There is alot of the blue gradiant sky. Maybe a crop or try to blend in some of the original sky using layers?