Mystic Takes [Blown Out Mistakes]

Newbie's just desserts. Nikon Coolpix 5700 taking 0745 morning RAW shots of Totem Pole in Monument Valley with single shot spot metering, gorgeous foreground, no tripod, and near up-sun angle. Three shots show spot aimed at foreground; blown sky R=G=B=255 (white); nine others have faint blue mixed with leaves for blown sky. Post-shot Googling of photo forums suggest Coolpix has a linear meter with no roll off when histogram over right edge in Expose-Right. So, I never got sky color for this shot series, but before/after real skies exist from many others.
Totem3924 is a RAW 5 MP file read in Elements 3 RAW format, rotated, sized, and saved as a web shot jpeg. It's a long way back to Totem. Oh well, that's how a newbie learns!

Can someone suggest a short, clearly numbered path of individual steps with HPPE3 to put a blue gradient map across blown out sky of Totem3924, based on 'real' sky values (from other valid skies) of R=206, G=232, B=241on left and R=124, G=147, B=164 on right?

"Blown out sky" and variants are not explicit in Hidden Power Photoshop Elements 3 index. On RealtouchPRO, in early 2004 Richard Lynch, gave a single, cursory response to a 'blown out' question commenting on Elements 2.
It centers on Blend Mask.
"The idea is to isolate sky and add color to it. As it will be pretty easy to do using a tonal range, Blend Mask will both use tone source and create means for applying color.
1. Use Blend Mask to isolate sky area.
2. Create a Fill layer with Blue you want to sub in (used a sample from jeans for blue and did a blue to white gradient).
3. Group Fill layer above Blend Mask.
4. Adjust opacity/mode of Blend Mask to temper addition."

As digital SLR cameras are relatively new on the block, I suspect numerous wannabe photographers will encounter this problem, yet still not know how to easily apply Lynch's suggestion.
I think Lynch's HPPE3 is a truly remarkable tool! Unfortunately, HPPE3 is for advanced users, so early learning curves are steep! Hence, a broad brush suggestion might still leave readers floundering, as it has me… Clearly, HPPE3's price point broadens Photoshop's base of users who will eventually get to-and-beyond this level of retouching photographs.

Is this the effect you are looking for? Somewhere along the years, I picked up a set of actions that does a pretty good job of correcting a blown out sky. The Action has the name of "Blownskyset" and you may find it with a Google.

Thanks Swampy,

Your kind response provided a remarkable first cut at a Monument Valley shot 2000 miles from you! The photo was taken in early May on a gorgeous, remarkably cool morning; I can't help but wonder if that's true of Florida swamps now?
As a result of your message, I not only downloaded Blownskyset, but Richard Lynch's description of using Actions in HPPE3, something I've not tried yet. See what benefits a newbie gets!
Because the sun is to the left, just coming over Spearhead Mesa, and casting shadows, I'm thinking about a directional gradient. Your vertical sky gradient lightens downward. Could you use light from other photos specified in my query to prescribe gradient (looks like sky values were 5-25% different) with Blownskyset action?
Would a horizontal gradient with light blue on the left and dark blue on the right be more appropriate? And a last question: Does Blownskyset allow directional gradients?

Swampy, thanks for your time. I think it's simply amazing how technology lets us both talk and visualize almost instantly from such a distance. Clearly, this struggling newbie likes your new Totem Pole...

BStone

Richardson's blownsky set has three separate actions. They vary in complexity and I used the simplest version. They all have stops in the actions that allow you to set some peramaters of the various steps. You should be able to go into the gradient's mask and change it to a radial after it's been applied (or set the gradient to radial before you run the action?) and then continue playing the action from that point.

Yep, it's Florida swamps...LOL I'm about 30 miles north of the northern edge of the Everglades. Really "boondocks".

Glad to be of help and glad you found the action set.

Swampy,

Can you please tell me what operating system and Photoshop version you used to remake sTotem… something’s amiss?

TIA

Bstone

Bstone

I'm on a Mac G5 running Adobe CS1 Photoshop.

The previous response about Blend Mask is cursory as there is a lot more material on it in the book. I do a rather complicated set in the book. You really only want to mask out the sky--targeting pure white. If you make a selection of the sky -- even just using the magic wand set to 0 tolerance and a one or two pixel feather, you should be able to use any gradient set to darken to fill the sky. If you fill the gradient to the selection on a new layer, you will even be able to adjust the effect and change tones/colors separately from the 'foreground'.

Do you need more details than that?