Replace Dull or Washed-out Skies
  Suitable for Adobe Photoshop CS CS2 & CS3
Skill Level - Intermediate

This lesson demonstrates how to replace dull (or bleached-out) skies with either a gradient, or a photograph of a sunny skyline. To work along you can download our photograph (Tynemouth Village by Peter Scarth), and skyline Here.  Unzip the file and open it onto Photoshop’s workspace.

Undo and Navigation Steps
Two ways of undoing steps are from the top menu, Edit then Step Backwards. Alternatively, click a previous snapshot in the History Palette.

Navigate (zoom in and pan) your image using the Navigator Palette,

or the Zoom Tool.

Activate The Hand Tool by tapping the Spacebar, keeping the Spacebar pressed, pan your image in the usual way.

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Open your start images onto Photoshop’s workspace.

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Then activate the Move Tool.

And left-click then drag the sky image onto the background image.

Note
To unlock the background layer, double-click it - then click OK.

  

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From the toolbar activate the Magic Wand Tool.

And set the following attributes into its Options bar.


Note
I have set the Tolerance to 56, however this setting depends upon individual photographs, and needs to be reduced for smaller (intricate) areas.

Now, left-click to surround the skyline with a marquee, repeatedly left-clicking to remove stubborn pixels.


Tip
You may prefer to remove the sky using the Background Removal tools.

Important
Ensure you don’t include parts of buildings with the marquee, if this does happen, then Step Backwards and reapply the marquee this time with a lower Tolerance. It is better to work with a low Tolerance, slowly expanding the selection.

When you have completed this step, the skyline should be fully selected by a marquee.

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From the top menu, choose Select then Modify then choose Expand by 1.



This shrinks the selection, ensuring a tight fit around the houses.

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Now, from your keyboard, press the Delete key. The skyline within the marquee has now been replaced by the blue sky layer, that is beneath it. 


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Gradient Skies - Alternative Gradient Sky Tutorial
Another way to replace skylines is (while the marquee is still in place), activate the Gradient Tool.

And set the following attributes into its Options bar.
 

You may require 100% Opacity.

Now, ensure the gradient is set to Simple, and choose a nice sky blue gradient. And drag the gradient over your image. The selected sky will change accordingly.

Just for fun.

   

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From the top menu, choose Select then choose Deselect.

Tip
If you find the Magic Wand’s selection has left parts of the image behind, such as the head of the lamppost here.

Then (working on the background image layer) activate The Clone Tool, and clone them out.

Note
If, after you have removed the marquee, you notice a transition line between the houses and the new sky, then Step Backwards to before you expanded the selection. Now, Expand the Selection - this time by 2 pixels, and the transition line should be removed.

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From the toolbar activate The Blur Tool. Tutorial.

And with a very low Strength, carefully blur any ragged areas, such as the following roof line.

                
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Depending on your photograph, you may need to brighten (or darken) the street image; therefore, ensure the background image is active in the Layers palette.


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Then from the top menu, choose Image then Adjustments then choose a filter to
lighten, or darken, your image. I have several PDF tutorials, that explain how to brighten/darken images. Your filter choices are; Brightness/Contrast, levels and Curves. These are the Curves settings I chose for my image. Curves Tutorial.

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You may wish to sharpen your image with a Sharpening filter - Filter then Sharpen.
Sharpen Image Tutorial.When you are satisfied with your result, from the top menu, choose Select the choose Deselect. Your work is complete and ready to save - therefore Flatten the layers and save your image.

Wendi E M Scarth. Top of Page - Home.