Photoshop or Lightroom for sky

Seajay

Seajay

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Cathy
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Hi all had some time today to spare and spent it at Culzean Castle.

Took many photos not any that are good enough to post but!
I would like to ask if you could send me a link to a good tutorial that will allow me to replace a grey sky to something better.
I have photoshop and Lightroom and I have many taken today that I can use for practise.
 
DayDreamer said:
Follow this simple guide as sometimes it can look really good :clap:
Click to expand...

Agree BUT more often than not it looks so obvious, you have to spend a fair amount of time to be good at this, that time is better spent getting it right in camera in the first place.
The problem is that the grey sky gave you a certain lighting across the whole image and obviously a blue sky would light the scene differently.
 
Neil you are right but as I stress 'sometimes' it can give a remarkably good sky. But it is just one of numerous tips I have followed dependent on the exact shot as sadly there is no 'one touch' fix. If Cathy could put up a sample picture we could make more accurate suggestions.
 
Neil B said:
Agree BUT more often than not it looks so obvious, you have to spend a fair amount of time to be good at this, that time is better spent getting it right in camera in the first place.
The problem is that the grey sky gave you a certain lighting across the whole image and obviously a blue sky would light the scene differently.
Click to expand...

Am I missing something? How can you get a blue sky in camera if the actual sky is grey?
 
Ok please be kind they are really not good.However I am going to use them to practise
my photo editing skills..lol!

Should have left my two Bernese at Home as I could not relax.I am going to go back next time with my camera and tripod.
There are a few horrid examples on Flickr as I was trying to bracket for the sky.



Culzean Castle by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
Thank you everyone.
I am am trying a few examples right now but truth is it does not look at all real.
Also tried pasting an overexposed layer over the underexposed one dropped the opacity and used eraser but it is still very false looking.

The truth is you need to get the image right in the first place but that will come with practice.
Cathy
 
Cathy sorry to say this but IMO whatever you do to replace the sky it just will not look right due to the rest of the shot being so dreary. You would end up with a bit of a mess & not really worth the time doing it. Unless there is a PP genius who can say different :)
 
haggis said:
Am I missing something? How can you get a blue sky in camera if the actual sky is grey?
Click to expand...

:thinking: Take the shot when the light is right, landscape photographers put in lots of hours waiting for perfect conditions.
 
Yes I know you are right but thanks for looking.

This is only one example I took the castle from lots of different angles from the beach below to the front door etc but they all look like this sadly:)

I was there at the wrong time of day too but thought I would give it a go.

I can't get there for sunset as it closes and would need to sneek in early morning but it would be worth it.
Cathy
 
My Mrs used to go crazy at me when i did landscape photography, some afternoons i would be watching the sky and if conditions looked right for a sunset i would just go.
Keep at it and when the light is right you will get far better shots :thumbs:
 
Neil I will use your advice. The problem with the castle is time it only opens 10.30- 5pm

Will maybe have to back to Turnberry Lighthouse and do some sunset shots there .

Many thanks everyone I can always count on you all for guidance !
Cathy
 
With that one where the sky has gone to a white glare you could try adding a gradient (or two)
Here I added a Neutral Density grad and faded it to about 20%, then added a sky blue gradient and faded that about the same.

9515977327_e6183a8dbb_o_1.jpg
 
Well done! and thank you for giving it a go.
These images on flickr are not good and very small to work with so you did a great job.

I am looking forward to going back and trying again so fingers crossed for a better day!
I may try this on another shot from today did you use photoshop or Lightroom?
 
Seriously! I have put these snaps down to a very bad day!!
I will learn from it though and did have a play to see what i could do and to let you know i did try.
Please note I know these are awful but the question was just on how to enhance a sky to give me a go at it.
It is not worth all the time on these but was fun trying.
Thank you all.
Cathy



sky2 by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
Seajay said:
Seriously! I have put these snaps down to a very bad day!!
I will learn from it though and did have a play to see what i could do and to let you know i did try.
Please note I know these are awful but the question was just on how to enhance a sky to give me a go at it.
It is not worth all the time on these but was fun trying.
Thank you all.
Cathy
Click to expand...

I spend considerably more time in PP than taking the shots in the first place & I do enjoy it so fully understand where you are coming from. It is gratifying to compare the 'before & after' shots. I try & curb my downloading of free trials of all sorts of PP software but am a sucker for it. Currently trying Topaz again along with SNS HDR & wonder what next :clap:
 
John lol! :)
Because I am just learning I almost always have to do something to every photo
However I never give in and will one day get a shot that works for me. I enjoy it and happy to learn no matter how long it takes.
As always the support here is very welcome.
Cathy
 
Cathy the one thing for sure is that the same as you joining TP was the best thing I did. I started taking part in the 'PP Game' just over a year ago & that encouraged me to try differing techniques. I am a 'fiddler' with the sliders in LR & never remember how I arrived at the end product :thinking:
 
Well as long as you enjoy it and get a result you like it is then all worth it .

Typical in the mood to go out and take some better shots and the weather is back to grey skies and rain :)

Have a great weekend John
Cathy
 
Cathy coincidently the PP Game has it's latest completion as a replacement sky one if you'd like to look in :)
 
Hi all,

Joining in a bit late, but wanted to say that with the first photo you could swap the sky and still make the image work, but it would take a ton of time and effort in PS. You'd need to selectively paint in lights and shadows (using levels or curves layers and masks) to suit and you'd have to tone the image to make the colours match too (which you can do a bundle of ways; some examples: using a colour balance layer, using a curves layer by selecting the channels, or using a fill, gradient or selective colouring layer with a soft light blending mode).

It's good to practice these things just so you have the skills in your pocket, but really the foreground has got to be mighty good before it's worth spending the time (and normally if the foreground is stunning it's because the conditions are better than you had ;) Kinda the long was of saying you could do it, but like the others said it's better to get your landscape shots right by getting them when the weather's good if you can :)

Miko
 
Miko,
Thank you.
You are quite right in what you say.
I just happened to be there on the day and it was around noon so not good for a start

Truth is I snapped away while walking with the dogs and not one of my pictures were suitable for anything that day.
However like I said I will go back and have now found out that I can go in after closing so maybe one evening when the sunsets
Cathy
 
Cathy, I’m a self-taught amateur. Replacing/adding skies was one of the first things I learnt to do, the first thing is to start taking skies creating a collection of good and bad, spectacular and mundane. Then there’s what sky should I use, that’s always tricky, but you can alter it to suit as in my effort.
The sky I used was a full 35mm so I only used half, then laid it over the top half of the image, copied it and flipped it vertically, and moved it down to cover the bottom half (reflection). I changed both layer styles to multiply and altered the opacity slightly. I then applied masks and with the brush at 10% erased over the castle, cliff and foreground. Flattened and did a bit of dodging. A final adjustment in levels and added a boarder using stroke.
Working with a web image is never going to give a top result so please forgive the lack lustre look but you get the idea.
Time taken about 10/15 minutes.

TP-CASTLE-WEB.jpg


Rhodese.
 
A replacement sky would work quite well.

This was done with your web sized shot but gives an idea as it is a technique I use?

I made it with more sky & a different crop as I felt your original image was lacking some more sky?

 
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Robin John and Rhodes what a nice surprise to pop on and see all the nice work and links posted.

I am so impressed with both edits Wow! great job! and just goes to show what you can get when you know what you are doing.I have to thank you all very much as these shots are not very good to start with,so you did not have a great start,sorry!

Rhodes I would have never thought to add the new sky to the bottom half for reflection but I have that noted now for future use.

Can't see Landscape being my thing lol! but I am not giving up yet.
Robin off to watch your link and see if i can learn more good tips.

All going well back to Turnberry tonight again!
Cathy
 
Ok had a little go with one of my Turnberry shots from last night using Lightroom which I am only learning to use.

The only thought is I want my shot when i get it :) of Turnberry Lighthouse to look like a real photo and not a painting like my edits look like.I don't mind a few tweaks so i guess i need to do the shots all over to try and get it right from the start.





webcopy by cooriedoon, on Flickr
 
How do you get to the middle of an image to lighten it in Lightroom?
Is it best to use the gradient or just the brush.
I would like to use another of the Lighthouse images for more practice with Lightroom but just cant seem to lighten the lighthouse itself.
 
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I would use the brush but zoom in first to get a better selection.

LR5 has a new feature which may be the answer - the radial thingy but I'm still on LR4 so not sure what it's called & if it would do it.
 
I agree with John that the best way in LR would be to zoom in and use the brush. Might be good to do two or three brushes with small amounts of increased exposure rather than one brush over with a big exposure shift just so you don't end up with any noticable lines. You have PS though and I find it much better (and easier) for working on small selections like this. I generally just edit globally in LR and do any fine work in PS. Not really helpful if you're doing this for LR-specific practice, but just sayin' ;)

Miko
 
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