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Turn my grey sky blue using CS6, need simple step by step

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 13, 2017
4 replies
3539 views

Got lost using tutorial that focus on removing things. Need a step by step on how to turn my grey to blue sky. I know the information is out there already but can't find it. gail

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Correct answer davescm

Hi Gail

You have replaced the sky with a solid colour. If you look at a real sky it lightens and gets less saturated as you go down to the horizon.

You could use another photograph and mask it so that it replaces the sky or, if you want a clear blue sky, you could do this.

Add a Gradient Fill layer (Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient) and set the Blending mode to "Darken"

Click on the gradient and adjust it so it goes from blue to white and the opacity reduces as shown.

Finally right click on the layer and select Blending Options.

Set "blend if" as shown (you will need to Alt click on the slider to "split it). This will mean it does not touch the mountains and reduce the opacity until it looks right

Finally I used crop to straighten the water edge

Dave

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

If you shoot raw, you can recover some highlight detail - raw files contain a lot more information than what's initially visible.

In the example below I used a graduated filter in Camera Raw in the top left corner with Highlights set to -100.

This retrieved color and detail in the overexposed sky.

When shooting raw, do as much work as you can in Camera Raw - the editing you do there is non-destructive, it doesn't change any image pixels, and you can always go back to the image and do further edits, or reverse what you did before without doing any damage.

gaillfrenchAuthor

Participating Frequently

wow, thanks, so much better, Gail

D Fosse

Community Expert

...and one additional consideration: Lens flare from the bright original sky. To get a realistic result, the mountains need a slight contrast enhancement, pulling down the black level, in a gradient down to the water. It could also be necessary with an extra tightening just along the edge. The flare wouldn't happen if the sky really was blue.

davescm

Community Expert

Good point Dag

Gail

Just to follow up on Dag's point, I Have added two curves adjustment layers above the original image.

The first is masked with a gradient (on a mask White shows the layer black makes it transparent or in the case of an adjustment it hides the adjustment).

The second was a similar curve but masked only to impact the top of the 2nd peak.

I hope that gets you started

Dave

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yep, much better

gaillfrenchAuthor

Participating Frequently

thanks for the reply. I did manage to blue up the sky but it looks unnatural, so still need help. gail

davescm

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi Gail

You have replaced the sky with a solid colour. If you look at a real sky it lightens and gets less saturated as you go down to the horizon.

You could use another photograph and mask it so that it replaces the sky or, if you want a clear blue sky, you could do this.

Add a Gradient Fill layer (Layer > New Fill Layer > Gradient) and set the Blending mode to "Darken"

Click on the gradient and adjust it so it goes from blue to white and the opacity reduces as shown.

Finally right click on the layer and select Blending Options.

Set "blend if" as shown (you will need to Alt click on the slider to "split it). This will mean it does not touch the mountains and reduce the opacity until it looks right

Finally I used crop to straighten the water edge

Dave

davescm

Community Expert

Hi Gail

There are various ways to do this - from adding a simple blue gradient to complete replacement using the sky from another image. All involve some masking so that the changes only affect the areas that you want to change.

Can you post an image and we will try and help you with some specific guidance applicable to that image.

Dave

gaillfrenchAuthor

Participating Frequently

Aloha,I am trying to make the sky blue in a TIFF but didn't want to send a Tiff so I made a xsmall jpg to send to you. Not sure if that will effect the instructions. If you could not skip any steps I would appreciate it. I get confused as to if I should work in Bridge, Raw, Smart Object, or (plain?) Photoshop, so I think my starting place is not correct when following others instructions.I just want to make the grey sky blue. I am using CS6 but also have Elements.I am most familiar with CS6 Super thanksGail

davescm

Community Expert

Hi Gail

There was nothing attached to your post. Don't worry too much about the file size - the max for an image attachment is 8MB. Just attach a reasonably detailed jpeg using the link at the top of the posting box.

Photoshop is the right tool to do this work. I will be dropping offline shortly - but will pick up in the morning, if no one else has picked this up for you in the meantime.

Dave

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