Author Topic: over exposed skies rescuing with a blue filter in photoshop? (Read 9550 times)

fintastique · « **on:** July 27, 2006, 04:49 »

I have a recent batch of photos and I have a few that have overexposed skies (should be shooting in RAW I know)

Has anyone has any success applying blue filters in photoshop and are they willing to share?

I know its a question of selecting the sky and filling with a blue gradient from white near the horizon to a shade of blue high up and setting a realistic opacity so it doesn't look like pop art,

Any suggestions would be welcome.

chellyar · « **Reply #1 on:** July 27, 2006, 05:24 »

'Urro.

Possibly not helpful if you've already got stuff 'in the can' but what I do when I really want a shot and the sky blowing out is take some shots exposed for the sky as well, and overlay them (using gimp in my case, but in PS if that's what you use)...

Because the sky is generally pretty 'wooly' you don't have to worry about a tripod etc, as close enough is good enough to rescue a blow skywith no real detail in it.

Large dynamic range in forground detail however requires a tripod and bracketed shots. :-).

The other thing you could do is use a sky from a similar shot and overlay it. Using a simple blue gradient can look a little contrived unless you're a PS genius...

Just my 2c worth.

leaf · « **Reply #2 on:** July 27, 2006, 05:57 »

yeah it is often pretty touch to get a nice blue sky and decent exposed foreground.

If you have an overexposed sky it is bessed to steal a sky from another photo and blend it into the current one.
One a nice blue sky day, take a ton of shots of the sky at various focal lengths.. then you will have significant stock to use when you need it.

fintastique · « **Reply #3 on:** July 27, 2006, 07:04 »

I will try with some stock sky footage, I read about the blue gradient method in a photography magazine but couldn't get it to work properly.

Thanks

ichiro17 · « **Reply #4 on:** July 27, 2006, 08:15 »

In the long run, the best thing to use would be a polarizing filter or ND grad filters. They will save you lots of time and effort on the computer. That being said, good ones are expensive and they take time to implement - but the results can be very eye-popping.

With that also being said, I don't have ND grad filters yet because they take way too much money to buy (the good ones can be up to 100 US a filter

- so thats on the waitlist behind L lenses, more memory, and a step-up ring for my 62 mm polarizer

Quevaal · « **Reply #5 on:** July 27, 2006, 14:55 »

What I sometimes do in Photoshop is:

1. Duplicate the layer
2. Select whites in both colour slots.
3. Select gradient fill
4. In the gradient alternatives, select "white to invisible" and a linear flow.
5. Use it on the top layer, so that it goes from visible(top) to white(bottom.)
6. Set the layer to multiply.

This way, the blue in the sky (if there's any blue, mind you!) will become darker without affecting the ground.
(Notice that "self-multiplying" images may enhance artifacts, so take a good look at the picture)

leaf · « **Reply #6 on:** July 27, 2006, 16:16 »

Quote from: Quevaal on July 27, 2006, 14:55

What I sometimes do in Photoshop is:

1. Duplicate the layer
2. Select whites in both colour slots.
3. Select gradient fill
4. In the gradient alternatives, select "white to invisible" and a linear flow.
5. Use it on the top layer, so that it goes from visible(top) to white(bottom.)
6. Set the layer to multiply.

This way, the blue in the sky (if there's any blue, mind you!) will become darker without affecting the ground.
(Notice that "self-multiplying" images may enhance artifacts, so take a good look at the picture)

could you go through that a little slower?
It sounds a bit different than what I do and I would be interested in trying it.

fintastique · « **Reply #7 on:** July 28, 2006, 03:58 »

Will try that method for the next batch. I actually found if the foreground had hard edges buildings for instance erasing through the old sky to new and improved sky worked well.

Trees were a ****ing nightmare.

A few shots from the top of a hill towards distant hazy hills were virtually impossible as there was such a soft edge between sky and land.

Quevaal tried your method don't seem to have a "set to layer to multiply" on PS7 so couldn't see any difference.

I tried having a gradient from 67A4FC (palie blue) to invisible and drew a line from the top of the photo to the horizon and it looked a bit better though i think I preferred my new clouds.

Quevaal · « **Reply #8 on:** July 28, 2006, 11:22 »

Quote from: leaf on July 27, 2006, 16:16

Quote from: Quevaal on July 27, 2006, 14:55
What I sometimes do in Photoshop is:

1. Duplicate the layer
2. Select whites in both colour slots.
3. Select gradient fill
4. In the gradient alternatives, select "white to invisible" and a linear flow.
5. Use it on the top layer, so that it goes from visible(top) to white(bottom.)
6. Set the layer to multiply.

This way, the blue in the sky (if there's any blue, mind you!) will become darker without affecting the ground.
(Notice that "self-multiplying" images may enhance artifacts, so take a good look at the picture)

could you go through that a little slower?
It sounds a bit different than what I do and I would be interested in trying it.

I'll show you some examples over the weekend when I have access to the computer.

leaf · « **Reply #9 on:** July 28, 2006, 13:42 »

if i have a really tough skyline like trees or blurry skyline or something I use the gradient tool on my stock sky shot. It generally looks pretty good as skies often get very white near the horizon. they tend to look a lot better than just a blue color from photoshop.

ptlee · « **Reply #10 on:** July 30, 2006, 10:46 »

Good ideas here. Thanks for sharing them.

-ptlee-

Quevaal · « **Reply #11 on:** September 17, 2006, 11:53 »

Quote from: leaf on July 27, 2006, 16:16

could you go through that a little slower?

All right, I finally got around to it and even made a tutorial:

madelaide · « **Reply #12 on:** September 17, 2006, 13:23 »

Queval,

That's an interesting tutorial, thank you! I think I have a couple of images I could try it on.

Regards,
Adelaide

GWB · « **Reply #13 on:** September 17, 2006, 17:39 »

Okay, if I forget or loose my grad neutral density filter, I do the following in Photoshop:

1. Duplicate layer

2. Select quick mask

3. Select gradient tool (set from solid to transparent)

4. Place the lasso over the affected area.

5. Exit quick mask.

6. Select the curves tool to darken the area.

What I like about this is that it gives you a feathered edge, so trees, buildings and other objects aren't effected when you bring the sky back in line.

Best,
G~

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Author Topic: over exposed skies rescuing with a blue filter in photoshop? (Read 9550 times)

fintastique

chellyar

leaf

fintastique

ichiro17

Quevaal

leaf

fintastique

Quevaal

leaf

ptlee

Quevaal

madelaide

GWB

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