[Swampy]

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

Swampy
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Let me get you the information this way, and I'll work on the RetouchPRO 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. :-)