Fixing a blown out sky

[Swampy]

I have updated this tutorial with a video version (12/12/06). Details

Swampy
___________
Let me get you the information this way, and I'll work on the RTP publisher later. The Photo's below should be in corresponding "step-by-step" order

Digital cameras are notorious for blowing out the sky and leaving a white glareish mess. Here's the easy way to fix most photos with this problem without having to make tedious selections. This tutorial was created in Adobe Photoshop CS2, but should be usable with any version of Photoshop that supports adjustment layers. [details]

1. Open original image, duplicate and turn off original background.

2. Make a marquee selection of the sky.

3. Add a Selective Color Layer adjustment layer, In the pop-up chose the WHITES and slide the Cyan and Magenta sliders to the right until you get a sky color that you like.

4. If you want more variation in the sky you can apply a black and white gradient to the newly created mask (For this tutorial I have duplicated the sky mask layer and applied the gradient to the mask on the duplicate layer and turned off the first adjustment layer.)

5. We can take this one step further and let the water more reflect the sky. Duplicate the sky gradient layer and reverse the direction of the black and white gradient on the mask.

Make sure that you have "Absolute" selected in the Selective color dialog box.

[SteveB2005]

Hi Swampy. I liked the way you explained your tutorial, especially posting the screen shots. I always get more out of a tutorial that features a visual guide. I have seen tutorials with 20 steps and no reference images and I am left in the dark with many words on how to do, but no results. How do you get your screen shots? steveb

[Swampy]

Thank you, Steve. Hope you found the information usefull. :-)

I do my screen shots using the built in Mac screen capture with the option to marquee the portion of the screen you wish to capture. This saves them as PDFs which I then open in Photoshop and add any circle highlights etc, then resave "for web" to reduce file size.

[Peter S]

Great stuff.
Just one nagging thing, the 1st image is very small, not much detail.

Nice and short tute though.

Peter

[deej131]

Ah, exactly what I was trying to figure out. Great tutorial, simple and easy to follow, many thanks.

deej

[Swampy]

Using this method, you can go a step further and add clouds to the mask by painting in black with a soft clouds brush (you can find cloud brushes on the Adobe exchange site).

Since the adjustment was done to the whites, your clouds do not interfere with the tree line so you can paint right down over the trees.

[patriciakay]

Thanks Swampy,your tutorial is great and easy for me to follow...i was sad that some of the photos i took in Spain had a blown out sky...now i can hopefully fix them...

Patricia..

[philbach]

Thanks, Swampy. Very nice. I didn't have a cloud brush so I just selected the selective color mask and ran filter/render/clouds on it.

[Swampy]

Wonderful, Phil! A great addition to the tutorial!

[rrustic]

It is good to learn something new everyday.

Rich

[pburdett@optusn]

Hi Swampy. This is my first post..looks like a great forum. I like your tutorial...thank you. However, I notice a slight halo around the tiops of the trees..(more noticeable when zoomed in). Is there a way to get a cleaner division between the trees and the new sky?
Cheers,
Paul

[Swampy]

Paul

There are some free actions floatin around on the web that will help in defringing blue/purples.

Sorry to be so brief. Fell and broke my shoulder yesterday. Typing not so good,

[pburdett@optusn]

Cheers!

[patriciakay]

Swampy...So sorry to hear you have broken your shoulder...it must be extremely painful....heres hoping it heals wonderfully and you are not out of action for too long....

Lovely job on the sky Phil....

Patricia....

[Swampy]

PK.... Thank you for the get well wishes! So far no surgery planned, but that may mean a longer healing process. Things are slow around here in the summer so maybe I can get acouple books read. :-)

[Flora]

Hi Swampy,

... so sorry to hear about your broken shoulder .... I really wish you the best and the fastest recovery possible...

Just to thank you for a great tutorial!!!

I'd only like to add a small tip... If the blown out sky is pure white or very close to it, you won't be able to add any colour to it, unless you tone it down to a very light grey ....

[Swampy]

Thank you, Flora!

Your tip about a "total blow out" may be true, but I've not experienced that in any photos I've worked on. I'll keep my eyes pealed for the exception though.

[Cameraken]

Hi.

I'd only like to add a small tip... If the blown out sky is pure white or very close to it, you won't be able to add any colour to it, unless you tone it down to a very light grey

Flora, does this only apply with ‘Relative’ Checked.? Swampy has ‘Absolute’ Checked.


I hope you Get well soon Swampy.

Ken.

[Swampy]

good eye there, Ken. Using absolute may make a difference.

And thank you for the get well wishes!

[Flora]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Cameraken

Flora, does this only apply with ‘Relative’ Checked.? Swampy has ‘Absolute’ Checked.

... Thanks for pointing that out Ken!! .... I've nearly never used the 'Absolute' option .... and I hadn't looked closely at the attachments ...

Originally Posted by Swampy

Using absolute may make a difference.

It surely does!!! I've just tried it and it works perfectly!!! ...

Get well soon ... and thanks again for a great Tutorial!!!

[Steverr]

Great tutorial,

Thank-you

[RAitch]

I haven't tried it... no need since I can already see how this will help.
You can also blend this technique with CTRL+Clicking an alpha channel before adding a mask. That would apply the edit only to the bright sections of the image.

Great idea... something I hadn't thought of.

[gsudell]

Is there a problem with the page I'm unable to view the tutorial?
Garry

[1STLITE]

Swampy, I am in your debt for sure! This is absolutely a great tutorial, and has opened up even more things for me, as I never even realized what the selective color thing could do!! THANK YOU!!!

[Swampy]

gsudell...
If you clicked on the "details" link, you won't see anything. I'm on a Mac and the Java Script for uploading tutorials doesn't work with my computer. The tutorial is contained in the balance of the first post in this thread including the 5 images that were uploaded with it.

1stLight.. Thank you for your kind comments. Glad to be of inspiration. :-)

[plugsnpixels]

Swampy always has such cool ideas!

I took the plug-in approach, as usual...

Image 1:

After a quickie sky and water highlight selection, I added Alien Skin Xenofex's Little Fluffy Clouds to give the sky blueness and a gentle cloud texture. I then added Cumulous clouds using Twisting Pixel's PixelCreation.

Never leaving well enough alone, image 2 adds sunshine from Knoll Light Factory and graduated fog from nik Color Efex Pro. Finally, I added Warm Soft Effects and Vignette from Digital Film Tools 55mm.

It's getting to the point where it doesn't matter what the weather and lighting conditions are when you go out to shoot! Or better yet, don't go out at all!

[LonK]

plugsnpixels: The first one just looks disconnected. The clouds in the reflection don't even approximate a mirror of what's in the sky. Of course, maybe that was your intention. I like the second one much more, kind of a low hanging, persistant haze -- adds a touch of mystery to the scene.

[plugsnpixels]

True. No, not specifically my intention, but I did rotate the image 180 before reapplying the same filter in an attempt to avoid the same orientation of the reflection. Thinking about it more now, I should have flipped it horizontally as well (that might have worked better).

I lightly erased the PixelCreation clouds in the reflection to make them more natural, FWIW.

I'm glad you liked the second attempt. I enjoy layering on the post-effects. I did something similar with the cover image of my 4th ezine, using a scenic generated from scratch in the free (for personal use) Terragen.

[LonK]

Originally Posted by plugsnpixels

True. No, not specifically my intention, but I did rotate the image 180 before reapplying the same filter in an attempt to avoid the same orientation of the reflection. Thinking about it more now, I should have flipped it horizontally as well (that might have worked better).

Yeah, a flip works, a rotation not so much.

I did do this exercise some time ago, but didn't post it. Here it is in case you're interested. This demos a flip of the clouds I added -- with a few more enhancements. I think it's pretty convincing.

[plugsnpixels]

As I got started I was hoping Xenofex would allow me to apply its effect to a new layer (as the more current Alien Skin plug-ins do), which would have made the flipping easier (my original plan). It didn't, so I resorted to the (incomplete) workaround described above.

Your example is great--looks perfectly believable.