John
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 232 
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by John on Dec 5, 2015 17:00:13 GMT
Just uploaded a bridge photo in sloaners gallery. Trying to make the sky look a little better but all the limbs are in the way. Any suggestions on how I can improve it other than cropping out them out?
Love taking pictures but doubt if I'll ever get good at post processing.
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Post by Sepiana on Dec 5, 2015 17:09:53 GMT
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Post by Sepiana on Dec 5, 2015 20:01:06 GMT
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ken1
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 83
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by ken1 on Dec 5, 2015 20:46:06 GMT
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.
Open your picture (A) (File>open), and open the replacement sky picture (B)
On the sky picture (B), go to Select>all from the menu, then Edit>copy to place it on the clipboard
Go back to your picture (A), then Edit>paste. The new sky (B) should come in on a new layer
With the move tool, use the corner handles to reduce the size of the sky (B) to cover the old sky over the bridge on (A)
In the layers palette, set the blending mode of (B) to darken
Set the foreground color chip to white
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.
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.
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John
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 232
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by John on Dec 6, 2015 16:26:22 GMT
Thanks for the responses. Excellent advice here. Great help.
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ken1
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 83
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by ken1 on Dec 6, 2015 17:38:59 GMT
You're welcome. Glad to help.
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Post by Sepiana on Dec 6, 2015 17:45:12 GMT
Thanks for the responses. Excellent advice here. Great help. John, you are most welcome! Hope these suggestions will work for you. |
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John
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 232
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by John on Dec 7, 2015 22:21:32 GMT
Thanks for the responses. Excellent advice here. Great help. John, you are most welcome! Hope these suggestions will work for you. Preciate you taking the time to look at my problem and helping. With me, when people help me its like throwing spaghetti at the wall. Some of it sticks and the rest slides off. I tried to select the limbs in my photo to put the sky behind but it won't select the individual limbs. I hope I've missed a setting with the sliders but I followed Morganti's tutorial carefully. I think its a great tutorial and a powerful tool if I can make it work. Anymore hints? Feel free to work on my bridge photo if you have time. |
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Post by Sepiana on Dec 7, 2015 22:44:03 GMT
John, you are most welcome! Hope these suggestions will work for you. Preciate you taking the time to look at my problem and helping. With me, when people help me its like throwing spaghetti at the wall. Some of it sticks and the rest slides off. I tried to select the limbs in my photo to put the sky behind but it won't select the individual limbs. I hope I've missed a setting with the sliders but I followed Morganti's tutorial carefully. I think its a great tutorial and a powerful tool if I can make it work. Anymore hints? Feel free to work on my bridge photo if you have time. John,
I believe you have Lightroom. Are you beginning your editing in Lightroom? I will check Morganti's tutorial and your image and I will get back to you.
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John
Junior Forum Member
Posts: 232
Open to constructive criticism of photos: Yes
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Post by John on Dec 8, 2015 2:02:25 GMT
I have Lightroom and I do start my editing in LR.
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Post by Sepiana on Dec 8, 2015 7:17:48 GMT
Hi John,
I checked Morganti’s tutorial as well as your image (using both Lightroom CC and Elements 14). I believe the problem you are having with the selection of the sky around individual tree branches has to do with the nature of your image. In Morganti’s image there is a lot of contrast between the blue sky and the green trees on the horizon. Furthermore, there is no blocking of the sky by foliage, etc. (except around the tree line). On the other hand, in your image there is less contrast between the gray sky and the tree branches. Also, the sky is practically hidden by the branches, with glimpses of it here and there. These differences between the two images may explain why the Quick Selection tool coupled with the new updated Refine Edge worked so well in his image but not so much in yours. Due to this, I would give the Magic Wand tool a chance. But, first of all, I would suggest you take your image back to Lightroom and boost the Clarity and Vibrance sliders a bit. Or you could do it inside Elements with a Contrast and/or a Hue/Saturation adjustment. You don’t need a big adjustment, just a little one. These adjustments will help separate the sky from the tree branches. Once you have done these adjustments, . . .
1. Duplicate the background layer.
2. Hide the original background layer.
3. Activate the Magic Wand tool. Turn off "Contiguous". Set "Tolerance" to about 40-50.
4. Click anywhere on the gray sky area to select it.
NOTE: Because "Contiguous" is turned off, the Magic Wand will select similarly colored areas which are not touching each other. You will notice that some of the railing on the right of the bridge, the sign on the front of the bridge, and part of the roof edge on the left will also be selected. No problem! Hold the Alt key and click on these areas. This will subtract them from your selection.
5. If the Magic Wand misses some of the sky, just hold the Shift key and click to select the spot. This will add it to your selection.
6. Once the selection looks good, press the Delete key.
As a side note -- I know you like Morganti’s technique. I agree; it is a very effective one. However, if this were my image, I would use the threshold technique described in these two tutorials listed in my earlier post -- How to replace an overexposed sky and Banish Boring Skies. You will be surprised how well it works with the kind of sky you have in your image (almost hidden behind the tree branches). But, remember, even this technique will benefit from a little helping hand (Contrast and/or H/S adjustment) to help separate the sky from the tree branches.
Hope this helps! Post back if you have any further questions.
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