[D J S]

I am quite pleased with this shot, but I know it can be improved. The sky is a problem, but I didn't want to crop it out completely and am not sure what to do with it in Photoshop. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Markulous]

Problem is that the sky is totally burned out (so absolutely no detail in it) - think you have a choice:
1. Leave it as it is - whilst less than ideal, it's not too distracting and it does still make a very pleasant image
2. Drop in a new sky. Fairly difficult, given those hints of cloud (and, I'd argue, very difficult to do well)
3. Go back to original shot and see if sky really is burned at that stage (maybe burned out at the post-production stage)

[Boofers]

Sometimes, on a new layer you can fake in a little blue with the selective color adjustment layer, with the white or blue or cyan select drop down palette, it's worth a try.

[Dabhand16]

OK - here is my effort. First the excuses! The sky is completely burnt out, I could not get anything from it. I had real trouble trying to match the trees in the background with the rest of the image, and failed miserably! It is no way as good as it could be, but in the time I had......

[D J S]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Unfortunately there was no detail in the sky in the original image so I think the only option is to replace it. I like what dabhand has done with the sky (although I'm not too sure about the blue trees in the distance )

I've burned in the trees a bit and stolen dabhand's sky, and this is what I've ended up with.

[Boofers]

Geez,,select color was a no show, but the white sky was so white that I used it for a mask, selected it with the magic wand tool anf hit erase, I have a bunch of cloud pictures because where I live that's all we have,,,then copied it behind the erased sky and sized it in place, used curves to try and line up white balance and rand the eraser along the edge of the mountain ridge until it looked kinda OK..maybe to much blue,,out of the picture there is a jet I tried to get in there but it messed with the clouds...it took all but 25 minutes
[IMG][/IMG]

[D J S]

Thanks Boofers, that looks great.

[P-E]

Originally Posted by D J S

I am quite pleased with this shot

And so you should be

[Rob Barron]

Des[ite everyone's hard work (and that DID take some hard work) I must be honest and say despite the sky being blown out, I prefer it to the adjustments which don't look natural.... and I am saying that with the highest respect for those who tried. Boofers is closest to the 'desired aim'. I do consider myself to be pretty reasonable with Photoshop but I am not even going to try and sort this one.... it isn't perfect but it really isn't a major problem either so I think I'd go with the original.

The rest of the shot is really lovely :o)

Cheers,
Rob

[Boofers]

Woow ,,thanks Rob, , considering I picked like the 2nd cloud picture I had out of 200,,,that aside, one thing about this kind of work that hasn't been talked about is the picture grain,,,I have a lesson on that, but have forgotten how to do it...I think at different times of the day, it is semi late for me,,that working on anything in photoshop that might or might not be hard can be relaxing and a learning period of great fun,,.
Those little things to be done when compositing are what Mark was refering to,,I would love to see some changing the grain to match, like maybe put up a picture already maskout with the pure white, and then we can add what ever we want but have to match the grain,,would it work with the size pictures we use here? Let's do it.

[Rob Barron]

If I am honest boof, I rarely add noise/grain to a shot as I don't think it adds much to a picture. It certainly is possible to give a picture an old and atmospheric appeal at times but more often than not I don't. On here, it has to be said the first thing that tends to be lost in compression is grain so even though we see it on our computers, we save fr the web and put them up for all to see and it just looks soft because the grain is gone and it looks out of focus or soft.

Grain is easy enough to add in Photoshop, my only point is whether it is worth it, especially when trying to show it on ehre.

Cheers,
Rob

[Boofers]

Rob,,after reading your reply, I thought to myself that maybe photo restoration would be the right work shop for that, rearly but sometimes it's easier to fix torn pictures with a replacement piece,,,that was my background in photoshop, I do remember terrible scans with terrible grain and a whole lot of work,,,but then it is the sky here in this picture that needs replacement, and to me the grain is where it blends together,,wouldn't white balance and pixel coloration be considered grain as well as noise background?