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Open
your photo. The exposure
of the landscape is perfect, but the sky is so
overexposed there is no detail whatsoever. We
can't bring back detail that is not there, so we
will recreate it.
You will need some realistic sky
blue colors to continue. You may sample blues
from another photo of a sky or use
this image. |
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You can use another photo of a
sky, preferably one with the same conditions as
the photo you are fixing, or you can use a
swatch like the one above. The shades of blue in
this swatch were chosen because they work well
with this image. |
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With the Lasso Tool
draw a rough boundary around the
whole sky (1).
It doesn't have to be perfect, but you should
avoid enclosing anything else that is white,
like the waterfall, and you should make sure the
selection is flush against the edges of the
photo. See the image to the right so see how I
drew my selection.
Now create a new layer
(2) and name it
Sky. |
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Double-click the layer
to rename it. |
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Now we will narrow the selection
down to just the sky. In
the Select menu, choose Color Range...
The Color Range dialog opens up and allows
you to select just by a specific color. Since
overexposed areas are usually white, we want to
select just the white sky. I start with a
Fuzziness of
100 (3), but it can vary from photo
to photo. Sample the sky color by clicking on
the sky of your photo
(4). You will see the preview
in the Color Range dialog change to white
where the sky is (5). |
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Click on the sky to sample the
range of color you want to select. |
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When you click OK, you
will see the selection move to fit the sky a lot
better than before.
If it doesn't, Undo,
and try again with a different fuzziness or try
sampling a different area of the sky.
Yeah you could have just used
the Magic Wand tool to select the sky,
but this method tends to grab the sky more
accurately, especially around the edges. |
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Next,
you will need to set your foreground and
background colors to a light and a medium shade
of blue. Two different
shades of blue spanning across a sky provides a
more realistic affect than a solid color.
It's
best to choose one medium shade of blue and one
light. Switch the colors so the light shade is
the foreground color. |
The color selector on the
toolbar. |
To set your colors, make sure you
have the provided blue color swatch or another photo of a
sky open. Double click one of the swatches on
your toolbar. Instead of using the color picker,
click the color on the screen you want to
sample, then click OK. Repeat for
the next color. |
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Pick the Gradient Tool
on the toolbar. Set
the options so the gradient mode is Foreground
to Background color (6)
and the method is Radial
(7). A
linear method works too, but I prefer the radial
technique. |
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With the Sky layer active
and the sky still selected with the marquee, use
the gradient tool to fill in the sky.
Draw a line from point
A to point
B. This will
paint in the gradient across the sky. |
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Now that the sky is painted in,
we need to refine the edges where the sky meets
the mountains, so it doesn't look as fake.
With the Sky layer
selected, press Ctrl-T to transform the
blue sky. You want to drag the bottom handle
just a small amount to make sure the bottom edge
of the sky overlaps the top of the mountains
slightly (8). Hit Enter to accept. and press Ctrl-D
to clear any remaining selections. |
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The red line in the diagram
indicates how far the sky should be stretched. Some
images may require stretching 3 sides of the sky
instead of one. It all depends on how much the
edges of the sky come in contact with the
foreground. The goal is to provide just a sliver
of overlap. |
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By
stretching the sky, we are now slightly covering the tips
of the mountains. Set the Sky
layer's blending mode to Darken and the
missing portions will return and the transition
between real mountains and fake sky will be
smooth.
Now you
have a more balanced image and can now enhance
the sky even further by adding some
cloud cover.
To see how to add clouds, click
here. |
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Play with the
setting to see what works best with what types
of images. Some guidelines
you should keep in mind are:
- This technique will work
with images with trees and other complex
objects that outline the sky.
- Use the Lasso tool
to help narrow down the area you want to
select with the Color Range tool.
- Try experimenting with
different sky and cloud colors.
For more PhotoShop tutorials, visit our
Articles section.
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