Replacing sky in Lightroom

[onearmivan]

Hello all,

Ever since I discovered this great site, I've been amazed at the quality of tutorials and great advices you guys are sharing.

This is my first post here and I have a first question, if you don't mind.

Is there a way to replace the sky in Lightroom 2.xx?

I know that it's a relatively simple thing to do in Photoshop, but I only have Lightroom and would like to be able to do it in Lightroom, logically - lol.

So, any idea how to replace that dull, white, gray... sky in LIghtroom, please?

I couldn't find the answer to that question anywhere. Hopefully there is a solution.

Thanks a lot.

[AgBeard]

You can not replace the sky in LR2 because it is not a pixel based editor, BUT what you can do is to use the Graduated Filter to reduce the exposure of the area 'covered' by the filter. This will often bring out detail in the sky. I find that just altering the contrast &/or the saturation a little can also help give interest to a bland sky.

The best way to deal with this issue is to deal with it at source by using Graduated ND Filters on the lens.

[onearmivan]

I was afraid that the answer would be "no" - heh.

I actually never used a Graduated ND Filter on my lens, so I have no idea how they are affecting the overall look/tone of the photograph (beside the sky), but it's something to think about definitely.

Thank you very much for the answer, AgBeard.

[kirbinster]

You can also use the brush tool to "paint" the area of the sky and change the exposure, color, clarity, etc...

[onearmivan]

Thanks, kirbinster.

I just started using Lightroom (which is my first postprocessing software I'm using ever) and getting to know all it's features.
I'm pretty much new to editing photos (well, anything) and what it looks impossible to me is selecting only the desired space and not the tree leaves/branches, house roofs... and other objects that are surrounding the sky; not to mention some small spaces "inside" the trees and similar situations where there are small and visible sky space... At this point I can't see how can I select just the sky form and not "breach" whatever surronds it.

Thanks both for the answers.

[amymnc]

Highly reccomend Scott Kelby's lightroom 2 book- it's helped me tremendously.
I don't think you can replace the whole sky, but I was flipping through the book and playing in LR yesterday and discovered something.
If you go to the right side, scroll a little and see where it says color/HSL/greyscale (something like that), click on HSL. Where you see saturation, luminance, etc, look for a little circle at the top left. The "TAT" tool, or targeted adjustment. You click on that, then click on the spot you'd like to edit in your photo. Pull it up or down and you'll see some good changes there. LR will automatically figure out which color you've clicked on and adjust accordingly. Just beware, because if you adjust the blue in the skies it's also going to adjust the other blue areas in your photo. Not too much in my experience.
Hope to have made some sense or helped a bit.