Participant

Question

Need help with volcanic smoke and sky replacement

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
July 3, 2025
2 replies
308 views

Hi, I need some help in how to use sky replacement on a photo I have taken of a volcano that has smoke going up into the sky. When I use sky replacement, the volcanic smoke is covered, and when I try to brush over it using a mask, the edges look inauthentic (even with feathering).

Can I get some assistance on the best way to keep the smoke and replace the sky. Any directions/links to videos would be welcome.

Sara

macOS

davescm

Community Expert

You can also create smoke on a new layer using the clouds filter then paint a mask using a soft brush (black hides - white reveals). Use a curve adjustment layer clipped to the cloud layer to adjust the depth of the smoke.

Dave

S

SaraSpacemanAuthor

Participant

Thanks so much Dave. I refuse to use any form of AI or generative fill and want to do this the traditional way.

As an example, the image below has some smoke from the volcano out on the sky area, but I want to change the sky and replace it with a night image, leaving just the smoke as it is.

davescm

Community Expert

Render clouds is an old filter and is not AI driven

I used it here, after replacing your sky and masking out the existing smoke which sky replacement left in.

First I used render clouds then transformed it to get the cloud variations small (it was greyscale as my foreground and background colours were black and white).
Then I added a black mask and brushed in the cloud shape

Finally I clipped a hue and saturation layer to it, setting it to colorise and adjusting the cloud colour

Dave

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Hi Sara. I'm afraid this is going to be one of those 'it depends' situations. What is the colour of the volcano smoke, and what would you like the sky to look like?

Does it have to be the original smoke? i.e. could you use Generative Fill to create some more?

This is mount Taranaki on a rare day that you could see it from below.

I used Generative Expand with the crop tool to give it some room for the smoke to fill, and then used Generative Fill to create an eruption

If you share your image, we'll be better placed to give you advice on using masks, blend modes, or whatever to achieve your desired effect.

S

SaraSpacemanAuthor

Participant

Thanks Trevor, as noted below, I refuse to use any generative AI and prefer to use my photos as I have taken them, so would like to only use the smoke I have in the image. Please see photo as noted to Dave. Very happy for any advice.

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