Digital Camera World » Photoshop skies

Replace boring skies with Photoshop selection tools

jmeyer — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:31:03 +0000

Our start image for this Photoshop tutorial.

When it comes to taking photos (or trying to top up your tan) the weather inevitably will let you down, even when you’re shooting in an exotic holiday destination. This can be especially annoying if you’re trying to capture white sands, bright blue seas and clear blue skies.

But thanks to one of our favourite Photoshop tricks, we can select our start image’s drab overcast sky and use the Photoshop selection tools to replace it with a more brochure-like graduated blue. On its own, the Photoshop Magic Wand tool can select most of the picture’s original sky, even if it contains a mixture of greyscale clouds and patches of blue.

However, the Magic Wand won’t be up to the challenge of including delicate details, like our straw parasol’s fine, pointy leaves. Fortunately the Magic Wand belongs to a team of selection tools that have the combined ability to tackle just about any selection challenge.

Below we’ll show you how to use the Selection Brush to add or subtract from the Magic Wand’s initial selection to include the parasol, beach and sea, then turn the selection into a Layer Mask, and then coax back missing details, like delicate palm tree fronds.

We’ll also show you how to use the Gradient tool to create a clear blue sky from scratch, and even add a couple of clouds to add points of interest and a sense of depth to the scene.

All you’ll need for this Photoshop tutorial is Photoshop Elements 9 or higher and about 20 minutes to spare!

Step 1: Start selecting
Open your original image. In the Layers palette, double-click on the ‘Background’ thumbnail to unlock it; it will be renamed ‘Layer 0′. Grab the Magic Wand tool from the Tools palette and, in the Options bar, set the Tolerance to 41 and tick Contiguous. Click on the sky. The ‘marching ants’ selection marquee will appear. Hold Shift and keep clicking to add more sky.

Step 2: Modify your selection
To remove bits of the parasol’s top edge, grab the Selection Brush from the Tools palette and tick the Subtract From Selection icon in the Options bar. Choose a round brush in the Brush preset picker with a Size of 45 and Hardness of 85%. Spray on the edge of the parasol to remove it; if you keep Shift pressed as you click, you can spray a straight line between two points and modify the selection more quickly.

Step 3: Make a mask
Go to Select>RefineEdge. Pop Smooth to 22 to remove jagged selection edges. Set Feather to 1.0 and click OK. Choose Select>Inverse from the main drop-down menu. Click the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (see page 43 if using Elements 8 or earlier). The selection turns into a black and white mask that turns the sky 100% transparent while keeping the parasol, sea and beach 100% solid.

Step 4: Sample sky colour
Click the ‘Layer 0′ thumbnail to target it. Grab the Eyedropper tool and click on a remaining patch of blue sky hiding between the lower leaves of the parasol. The foreground colour will turn light blue. Click on the background colour swatch. In the Colour Picker, set R to 35, G to 65 and B to 110. Click OK. You’ll now have a light-blue foreground and a darker-blue background.

Step 5: Draw a sky
Click the Create New Layer icon. Drag ‘Layer 1′ below ‘Layer 0′. Grab the Gradient tool, select the Gradient Editor, then Foreground to Background, then the Linear Gradient icon. On ‘Layer 1′, draw a gradient upwards from the horizon to create a graduated sky. Any patches of original sky clinging to the parasol’s fronds become the same colour as the gradient.

Step 6: Reveal delicate details
Grab the Brush tool. Choose a soft-edged brush with a Size of 200. Set Opacity to 20%. Click on the Layer Mask. Set the foreground colour to white. Spray over the leaves at the bottom of the parasol to reveal more delicate details. Copy-and-paste your new cloud.

Use a Lighten Blending Mode to add it to the scene. Duplicate the layer and use Image>Rotate>FlipLayerHorizontal to create another cloud.

Our finished image.

Top Photoshop tip
When removing bits of the parasol’s top edge from the Magic Wand’s initial selection in Step 2, you may end up removing parts of the sky from the selection too. To add bits of sky to the selection, click on the Add To Selection icon in the Options bar. You can use the Options bar’s Add To and Subtract From modes to fine-tune the selection marquee until only the sky is selected. By pressing the Alt key you can toggle between the Add To and Subtract From modes with ease!

Tutorial: Fix dull skies in Photoshop

sraynes — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0000

Learn how to boost a sky in your landscape photos with this Photoshop tutorial from our sister magazine, Practical Photoshop.

Dull grey skies as a backdrop to your landscape shots are pretty inevitable when winter rolls around, but there’s no need to leave otherwise interesting photographs lacking some colour. This easy tutorial by the Practical Photoshop magazine team will show you how the skies in your images can be adjusted to add punch and interest by using Photoshop’s Curves and adjustment layers.

Repair burnt out skies: Photoshop tutorial

dcworld — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:25:04 +0000

How to repair a burnt out sky: use Layer masks to perfect your landscape photos

Photoshop tutorial: A dramatic sky brings a landscape photograph to life, and although the colour-filled skies of dawn and dusk are perfect for awe-inspiring landscape shots, fluffy clouds and deep blue skies of midday can produce equally striking scenes. The midday sun presents a few technical problems though, especially if you need to shoot into or in the rough direction of the sun, the result of which can be a complete burnout of the sky or a steep gradient from white to dark blue. So if your perfect scenic shot is ruined by lens flare or bleaching, don’t panic, get the shot you want and rescue the sky in Photoshop later. Follow the simple steps in this tutorial to learn about layering techniques, how to increase tone and give your landscape photography punch.

1. Select the sky

Open the file named landscape_before.jpg. The position of the sun, just out of shot, has caused the left-hand side of the sky to completely burn out. To start the repairs, grab the Quck Selection tool from the Tools palette and drag the cursor across the sky to select it. Click Refine Edge in the top options bar.

2. Darken the colour.

In the Refine Edge options boxes, set Smooth to 0, Feather to 2 and Expand to 3. Click OK. Go to Layer>NewAdjustmentLayer>Levels and set the three sliders to 50, 1.00 and 255 to darken the blues in the sky. Go to Layer>New>Layer. Select the Eyedropper tool and click into the dark blue patch of sky.

3. Create a gradient

Click the arrow next to the colour swatches in the Tools palette to swap the foreground and background colours. Click into a light blue area of sky. Hold down Ctrl. Click into the Levels layer’s mask to reselect the sky. Select Gradient tool. Hold down Shift. Drag the cursor from the bottom of the sky to the top.

4. Reveal the clourds

Go to Levels>NewAdjustmentLayer>Levels. Drag the Levels layer below the Sky Image layer. Holding down Alt, hover the cursor between the two layers until it changes shape; left-click. This clips the Adjustment Layer to the image layer. Now select a soft-edged black bruch with an Opacity of 20% and Size of 700px.

5. Create a cloud

Use the brush to reveal the cloud on the right. Select the top Sky image layer. Hold down Shift. Click on the bottom layer so all the layers are selected. Hold down Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to merge the selected layers into a new layer, then use the standard Lasso tool to select the small cloud to the top left of the tree.

6. Match the sky

In the same layer, go to Edit>Copy and then Edit>Paste to create a new cloud layer. Use the Move tool to position the new cloud in the upper centre of the image. Before blending the cloud, go to Enhance>AdjustLighting>Levels and increase the Shadows to 40 to roughly match the sky.

7. Blend the cloud

Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer. Move it below the image layer in the Layers palette. Clip it to the new cloud layer using the technique described in step 4. Select a soft black brush, size 300px, Opacity 20%. Click into the Layer Mask. Paint around the edges of the cloud to blend it seamlessly with the sky.

8. Using the mask

Click onto the merged layer and select the Lasso tool. Select the cloud cluster to the left of the tree, including a little bit of the hilltop. Copy (Ctrl+C) and then Paste (Ctrl+V) the clouds into a new layer. Making sure that the new layer is selected, go to Image>Rotate>FlipLayerHorizontal, then select the Move tool.

9. Manipulate the clouds

Grab one of the corner anchor points; increase the size slightly. This will help to make the clouds look significantly different from the originals. Move the clouds over to the left of the image. Open the Levels window (Ctrl + L) and adjust the midtones to 0.85 to match the blue in the clouds with the sky beneath.

10. Blend with the sky

Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer. Clip it to the bottom of the sky layer as in step 4. Reduce the Opacity to 70%. Use a black brush to remove any sky that covers the hill, reducing the size of the brush as needed to get an accurate blend. Once finished, set the Opacity of the cloud layer back to 100%.

11. Improve the tones

To improve the image contrast, make sure you have the top layer selected, then create a new Levels Adjustment Layer. Adjust the Shadows to 5 and Highlights to 225 and click OK. Click on the Layers palette options and select Flatten Image. This will flatten all of the adjustments down onto one layer.

12. Boost the colours

The colour could do with a boost, so create a new Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and increase the Saturation to 5. There are also a few warm colours in the foreground rock that can be enhanced by using the Edit drop-down. Select Red and increase the value to 50. Use Ctrl+E to merge the layers.

13. Burn in the shadows

You can now use the Dodge and Burn tools to life the detail within the image. Select the Burn tool and a soft brush with a diameter of 700px and an Exposure of 5%. Set Range to Shadows, then start by painting over the rock, foreground grass and tree to darken the shadows.

14. Highlight the grass

Once you’ve finished with the Burn tool, left-click and hold on the tool icon to select the Dodge tool. Set the Range to Highlights and use the same values as you did with the Burn tool. Now carefully paint over the grass and rock in the foreground to help lift the highlights from the image.

15. Sharpen up

It’s good to sharpen the image before applying a vignette, because this will help to avoid any noise being introduced to the sky. Make sure that you have zoomed the image to 100% by using the Ctrl and + keys to zoom in, then go to Enhance>AdjustSharpness. Again, make sure the preview is at 100%.

16. Adjust the sharpness

Click and hold the left mouse button in the preview window and drag the image to a point of interest – for this image, the rock in the foreground. Now move the Amount slider to 100% and Radius to 1.5. You’ll instantly see the detail in the rock increase in contrast and lose some of the detail.

17. Fine-tuning

Reduce the Radius slider to 0.5 – this will bring back the finer detail – then reduce the Amount slider to 50%. You want a good balance between the two adjustments that avoids haloing, a sign of over-sharpening. You can check the results before and after by clicking on the preview to see the original image.

18. Add a vignette

The sky looks better, but the uniformity of the gradient looks a little unnatural. To give a more natural effect, go to Filter>CorrectCameraDistortion and reduce the Vignette Amount to -30. You’ll see the corners darken slightly. Click on the layer options menu and choose Flatten Image.