Elements 2019 [How do you replace sky around trees?]

[#1]

How (step by step)  do you replace sky around trees in Elements 2019?

[#2]

How (step by step)  do you replace sky around trees in Elements 2019?

[#3]

Try this:

• Open the image in the Editor
• Press Ctrl+J to duplicate the layer so that you are not working with the original
• Select the Magic Wand tool from the toolbar (1)
• Make sure the Magic Wand tool is selected in the Tool Options (2)
• Make sure the Contiguous option is unchecked. (3)
• Click on the sky in the image.  (4) You should see marching ants around the sky.
• If all of the sky is not selected, adjust the tolerance for the tool.  (5)

• Click on the Refine Edge button (6) to get a better idea of what parts of the image have been selected. (6)  The on white or on black view are suitable for this purpose.

• Once satisfied with selection of the sky, press Delete. The sky pixels will be removed, leaving a transparent area.
• Open the image of sky that you want to use in the image.  Drag the replacement sky image from the Photo Bin to the open image of the tree and drag the new layer beneath the tree layer in the layers panel.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[#4]

Thanks for yur help but I still have a problem. First i did go to the

fuull discussion. Everything was as you said until the last step.

I selected the cloud image. But ONLY the Cloud Image appeared. In your

video the following appears: Layer 1, the Sky Replacement, The

Background. While only the Sky Replacement appears in the layers area

on my computer.

At this point I was stymied.

Any help would be appreciated.

Frank

[#5]

If you click on the Photo Bin toggle in the lower left corner of the Editor, you should see your two photos (the tree and the replacement cloud).

Select the tree image and it will appear in the editing window.

Now, click and drag the cloud image from the photo bin to the tree image in the editing window.  This will create a new layer at the top of the layers panel and the cloud will appear in the edited image.  (It sounds like you had the cloud replacement image selected in the Photo Bin.)

Select the Move tool (Press V) and drag Layer 1 to the top of the Layers panel.

You may need to resize or move the cloud layer around to suit your composition.

Hope this clears the skies for you.

[#6]

Open the image in the Editor?

Both images background and new sky in that order? And then proceed to

"make sure the Magic Wand tool is selected?

Sorry, but I am very step by step literal. Any steps not precisely in

order lead me to nowhere. I do not guess well.

thanks

[#7]

Sorry, but I don't understand where you are now stuck.  So, give me the exact steps that you are taking and I will figure out what comes next. 

You can open both images in the Editor in any order.  They will appear in the Photo Bin.  It doesn't matter which one is on the left or the right.  What is important is that the tree photo is the one that is being worked on.  To ensure this is the case, simply click on the thumbnail of the image that appears in the Photo Bin.  If it is selected, it will have a blue outline around the thumbnail in the Photo Bin.

[#8]

Did you get this to work for you?

[#9]

Thanks so Much. finally figured it out!

Frank Goudy

[#10]

Yes. Thanks so much.

Frank Goudy

[#11]

Frank,

I asked because there is also a nice technique for this purpose propounded by Alibony. Sometimes with dense foliage the magic wand tool does not fetch the drab sky (for deletion) within the arborization, and this is where this comes in.

You need 2 pictures: The one that you have with the drab sky which you wish to replace, and a picture of a "good" sky - just blue sky with clouds, nothing else on it. You can take the picture of the sky yourself, or download one from another source.

Also, familiarize yourself with the gradient tool, as we will be using this in step #7.

1. Open your picture (A) (File>open), and open the replacement sky picture (B)
2. On the sky picture (B), go to Select>all from the menu, then Edit>copy to place it on the clipboard
3. Go back to your picture (A), then Edit>paste. The new sky (B) should come in on a new layer
4. With the move tool, use the corner handles to reduce the size of the sky (B) to cover the old sky on (A)
5. In the layers palette, set the blending mode of (B) to darken
6. Set the foreground color chip to white
7. Get the Gradient tool out of the toolbox, and drag a foreground to transparent, linear gradient from below up to the top of the tree line, while holding down the shift key.
8. With a soft white brush, at reduced opacity, gently paint the horizon a bit, as we want the horizon to be a tad lighter than the rest of the sky.
9. If necessary, add a few clouds

[#12]

Thanks I will try this