Replacing Skies April 17, 2013   0

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This weekend, I took a photo of my husband and the girl kissing. I absolutely loved it, except for blowing out the highlights (and the blue sky) due to the shine off my husband’s gloriously bald head.

That darn blue sky problem… when the sky is never really blue… just a washed out version of itself.

Ever run into “the missing sky” problem?

I do all the time.

Now, I love a blue sky just as much as the next person, and I really do love the photo, so I thought I’d give replacing the blue sky a go. I used the How to Replace a Sky in Photoshop from Digital Photography School as a guide to make the replacement. (I only have Photoshop Elements.)

Here’s the original photo:

Before

Before

Here’s the update:

After

After

Looks a little better, but I see plenty of faults with it. I hate the halo around their heads, the blue tint on the background trees and possibly the sky itself.

Maybe it’s that “being too hard on yourself” thing. But regardless, I’d like to know what you think.

How do you replace skies in you photos?

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Categories: Odds & Ends


About the author: Yazmin

Hi! I am Yazmin, a natural light, lifestyle photographer living in the Atlanta area. I am a Christian, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a geek and coder. Thank you for stopping by my little slice of the "interwebs"!


  1. Pam says:

    April 17, 2013

    I think you being to hard on yourself, Personally the first thing I noticed was the sweet little hand on her Daddy's face, after that nothing else much mattered. Unless of course your entering it into a contest LOL Reply

    • Yazmin says:

      April 18, 2013

      Thanks Pam. I notice that too... then I start to see the halo and such. I think I'm happier with the Lightroom version I posted today. Have you seen it? What do you think? Reply

  2. Sim says:

    April 18, 2013

    As a photography hobbyist, I can tell you the solution. It is to expose the image for the people in the foreground and use the camera flash. Use the built in screen in your camera, and if you only point at the people the picture it will look dark on the screen, but when the flash is used they come out fine and your sky is perfectly exposed. Adding a sky in Photoshop is only for the expert if you want it to look natural. Sorry to say but your sky looks very fake. It's too dark. If the sky was truly that dark, there's no way the people would be bathed in such bright light as they are ! Your middle ground also looks way too over exposed and fake. Use the trick I mentioned and you will be fine and have a far more natural looking image. Hope that helped. Reply

    • Yazmin says:

      April 18, 2013

      Yes! Things I forget when I'm in the middle of it... expose for the people, use your flash!

      And I tend to agree with you about the photo. Mentioned as much in the post. :/

      Thank you for commenting! Reply


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