fixing overly dark areas of sky without adjusting the entire sky

TD
Posted By
Tim_Devick
Nov 25, 2003
Views
105
Replies
3
Status
Closed
I have only started to use some of the more useful features of PE 2.0 and have a problem I’m trying to resolve, but don’t understand how to use the tools to do what I want to do.

I have a 35mm slide that I have scanned and I must have used a polarizer and a wide-angle lens when I took the photo because the sky in the top third of the photo is almost purple and as it gets closer to the horizon, the blue of the sky gets lighter. I want to adjust the sky so it is more even in color, but cannot figure out exactly how to do what I want to do.

I tried just burning in the sky where it is dark, but it loses some of its color – rather than just getting lighter, the color shifts too and it doesn’t look right. I thought perhaps I could use the gradient tool, but I have no idea how to use it. I played around with it a bit, but accomplished nothing useful.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can work with this? I want the "purple" area of the sky to become more sky blue like the other area of the sky.
Related Tags
adjust area dark fix

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Chuck_Snyder
Nov 25, 2003
Tim, here’s one approach that you can play with:
1. Select the sky with whatever tool is easiest: rectangular marquee, lasso, selection brush, etc.
2. Feather the selection (Select>Feather) about 5 pixels to soften the edge of the selection a bit.
3. With the selection active (‘marching ants’ visible), add a Levels Adjustment Layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels). When the Levels dialog box comes up, move the middle slider until the dark area of the sky has lightened to the desired tone. Don’t worry that the light area has become too light; that gets fixed next. Hit OK.
4. Reselect the sky (Select>Reselect).
5. Taking care to make sure you’re pointing at the new Levels Adjustment Layer in Layers palette, choose the Gradient tool from the tool box and pick the gradient black to white, linear gradient with reverse unchecked in the Gradient toolbar.
6. Draw a vertical line on your image from the top of the selection to the bottom of the selection. (again, make sure you’re pointing at the Levels Adjustment Layer before doing this!). This will put a gradient in the layer mask and cause the levels adjustment to ‘fade’ from top to bottom.

You may have to try it a few times to get just the effect you’re looking for; try shorter and longer vertical lines for the gradient. You can always go undo your work if necessary (Edit>Step Backward or Undo History).

If you still get a color shift, you may want to try the same technique as above except add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer instead of or in addition to Levels.

Hope this helps get you started.

Chuck
JC
Jane_Carter
Nov 25, 2003
Thank you Chuck! I have similar slides with similar problems, and I will print out your instructions and have them ready right here when I get to my slides!
Jane
MP
Marshall_Ponzi
Nov 25, 2003
Check out these 2 links. These give two step by step methods that might work. They’re written for Photoshop, but they work in Elements too. The Local Contrast Enhancement is a variation built on Contrast Masking.

Contrast Masking
< http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-se ries/u-contrast-masking.shtml>

Local Contrast Enhancement
< http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhance ment.shtml>

Good Luck

Marsh

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