Even the most beautiful outdoor photo may look dull because of the boring sky. In this quick tip I will show you how to improve the photo atmosphere by simply replacing the problem area.
First, let's open the original image in Photoshop. I'm going to use this photo of an office building from iStock.
Figure 1
Now, go to Select > Color Range and click the sky near the top to sample a color.
Figure 2
Set the Fuzziness level to 85 and press Ok. Your selection should look similar to the image below.
Figure 3
Load the sky picture you'd like to use in Photoshop. I will use this gorgeous sky image from Fotolia.
Figure 4
Press Ctrl+A to select all, and Ctrl+C to copy selected area. Then, switch back to our original image, and go to Edit > Paste Special > Paste Into. Name the new layer Sky.
Figure 5
Make the Sky layer mask active by clicking its thumbnail in the Layers palette. Now, using a soft Brush Tool, mask the bottom area of the new sky.
Figure 6
Let's lighten our new sky, so it would match the original image a bit better. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer » Curves and add a new adjustment layer. Make sure you check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask box. Adjust the curve as on the image below.
Figure 7
Now, let's add another adjustment layer, this time Selective Color (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color). Select Cyans from the Colors drop-down and adjust the parameters as shown on the image below.
Figure 8
Here is our final image:
I hope this simple technique will help you to make your designs even better, and, as always, use the comment form below to ask any questions.
