Is there an easy way to alter sky coloring

PR
Posted By
Paul_Ruzicka
Apr 6, 2004
Views
367
Replies
18
Status
Closed
Hello!
I realize that this is probably a silly newbie question, but I was hoping if someone here could instruct me in how to change the coloring of the sky is several photos I have. While the main objects of interest in the photos seems to look okay, many of the skies appear rather rather washed out and whitish/grayish. The photos were taken on a 5MP digital camera during a extreme heat wave, and I’m wondering if the excessive heat might not have affected the camera some.
I’m using Photoshop Elements Version 1.
Thanks!

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SR
Schraven_Robert
Apr 6, 2004
Paul,

You should know that there are no silly questions just silly answers. 🙂
What you describe happens to me quite often too. On a sunny day the sky is washed out or at least boring.
There are several ways to do something with the sky.
Quite often people replace the boring sky with a more interesting one. That is why lots of people take images of skies only.

However in this case I would try and increase the saturation of the sky only by selecting the sky either with the magic tool or by selecting it with the lasso tool. Once you have done that you then can up the saturation of the selected sky and that should give it a more bleuish look where as the non-selected part of the image stays as colourful as it was before.

I hope this helps.

Robert
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 6, 2004
If the sky is completely ‘blown out’ (that is, all white and no image information present), a saturation adjustment won’t do it for you. I’ve had some luck selecting the sky area, creating a new layer via copy, then applying a color gradient to the new layer. It takes some experimentation to make it look realistic, but it certainly can give you a better-looking picture than the ‘before’.

Chuck
JR
John_R._Collins
Apr 7, 2004
Paul,

I agree with Paul about replacing your sky with a more interesting one that you have photographed. If your camera lens can take a polarizing filter, you can use this while taking the original photo, or when you are collecting your own sky pix.
However, that having been said, you can go to the Adobe file sharing site: <http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseProduct.asp?p=2> for Photoshop and seaarch in gradients for "skygrads" which includes 32(!) different sky gradients that you can replace your sky with.

John
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 7, 2004
John, thanks very much for the tip on sky gradients – I downloaded them and will add them to the gradients folder!
CS
carl_sutherland
Apr 7, 2004
John,

How do you use these. It seems there must be some blending or matching or something. Could you explain and/or give the steps?

Thanks

Carl
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 7, 2004
Carl, just put them into applications>PE>presets>gradients and the next time you launch PE choose the gradient tool. Click the little arrow on the right of the thumbnail in the options bar and then the arrow on the palette that pops out and you’ll see them listed in your gradient libraries. You can edit them in the gradient editor just like any other gradients if you want to make changes to them.
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 7, 2004
Carl, the way I use them is to select the sky you want to replace, then do a Layer>New. On the new layer, with the selection made previously still active, pick one of the sky gradients and draw a vertical line from the bottom of the selection to the top of the selection. Voila – new sky!

Chuck
CS
Chuck_Snyder
Apr 7, 2004
Barbara, oops – I guess I didn’t read Carl’s question carefully….
BB
Barbara_Brundage
Apr 7, 2004
Hi, Chuck. I’m not sure exactly what Carl wants to know, either, so between us we should have at least gotten him started.

Carl? Is there something else you wanted that we didn’t understand?
KL
Kenneth_Liffmann
Apr 7, 2004
John
Thanks for the link. I downloaded and they installed without a hitch. I shall find use for them. Sometime ago I downloaded cloud brushes and these gradients will complement the brushes nicely.
Ken
JR
John_R._Collins
Apr 7, 2004
Carl,
Take your opened photo and duplicate it (in case of disasters). Create a new layer and move it to under your duplicated photo. As suggested, use the magic wand tool to select the sky you want to replace. Edit/cut it and then activate the blank layer below.
Select one of your new sky gradients and make sure that the left-most mode (linear) is selected. On your picture, draw a gradient from below the horizon to the top of your picture. If you are not satisfied, use edit/step backward and try it in the opposite direction, or use a different "line" length or even a different gradient.
To see what I did to the sky in one of my pictures go to the forum item called "Recent Pictures, follow the steps to the Southern Art picture in the Travel album.

John
D
davee
Apr 8, 2004
If you just want to make the washed out sky more blue, rather than actually change the appearance, try Enhance, Adjust Color, Replace Color. This process will keep all your clouds and color streaks intact.
It is explained better in Help under the "Using the Replace Color command" topic than I could do here.
If you make the Fuzziness value too small you may (will) get a speckled effect, as the groups of pixels which correspond to your eyedropper selection point become smaller and more dispersed.
You have to achieve a happy medium which will deal with the sky area as smoothly as possible, without straying into or including other similarly colored parts of the picture.
If this is difficult, then use a selection tool (Lasso or Marquee) to outline the area you want to alter. This doesn’t have to be too accurate – just so that areas you dont want to change are excluded.
LK
Leen_Koper
Apr 9, 2004
This is of extremely little help, but cannot resist the temptation to tell my solution: I always try to crop this sky out when taking a picture in these circumstances.

This is not meant to be funny; but IMHO careful cropping and concentrating on ones main subject is one of the keys to succes.

Leen
SR
Schraven_Robert
Apr 9, 2004
Leen,

Your comment is more helpful than you might expect. When the sky is bland, unattractive and does not add anything to the image I also try and crop it. The result is a more intimate image.

Robert
D
davee
Apr 9, 2004
I agree entirely with cropping unwanted sky from a picture. On looking at many slide scans I’m surprized how much sky is in them, although in real life an open ‘view’ does include an awful lot of sky. When cropping it out it is important to leave enough to present a realistic result – and what is left may still benefit from some enhancing.
IH
Ingrid_Halvorsen
Apr 11, 2004
After cropping out a boring sky, use the magic wand to select the transparent area. Use the "Paste Into" command from the Edit Menu to substitute another sky you have copied from a different picture. It pastes it into a new layer below. The new sky layer can be moved around until it suits your picture.
CS
carl_sutherland
Apr 23, 2004
Barbara, Chuck, John,

I think I am OK now. I was trying to do a complicated selection involving a tree against the sky and replacing the sky for a course. My confusion at the time I now see had more to do with the selection than the replacement gradient. I have now downloaded the sky gradients and believe I can use them when I next have the opportunity.

Many thanks

Carl
CR
Chris_Rankin
Apr 23, 2004
I might as well chime in too with some probably not helpful suggestion. Something that works for me sometimes (especially in B&W but color too) is to select the sky and then do a Levels adjustment on the selection. You can’t get too heavy handed in color images or you’ll notice it at the borders of your selection but sometimes you can bring out some color or contrast depending on your need.B&W is more forgiving

CR

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