Sky Import

duncan_g · Sky Import

I put a new sky in a pic i took of Robert Pollock at Glencoe DH track.
It isnt any thing special of a pic, just that it was real dull without a bright sky.

Before:

After:

Looks quite unreal, since i had to bump up the saturation to make the sky "fit in" bit i think it aint too bad

Roo

Works quite well, but the shadows in the foreground are too milky for my liking.

duncan_g

Do you mean that the contrast is off? Or what can i do?

dandantheadminman

couldn't you have numped up saturation on the sky but tis self?
as im guessing you had the sky a separetate layer...

duncan_g

Yeah, the sky was bright in the first place but it didnt mach the ground etc but ill fiddle with it as i have a PSD copy and a JPG copy.

duncan_g

I changed it a bit, im still not convinced that it looks quite right. Confused

dandantheadminman

yeh, teh colors in the bottom bit look wrong

give the .psd to me and Ill give it go if ya want

duncan_g

Ok, ill msn it to ya.

Hamish

It doesn't look right because the light doesn't match. If you're replacing overcast skies then you can't have them looking too blue or it screams FAKE! too much. Also, it's too much in focus compared to the rest of the background.

In the original you've got a fair bit of detail that CS2 shadow/highlights could have brought out without making it look too fake.

If I ever replace the sky then I try and make it subtle so that it looks more lifelike. Reducing the opacity of the sky layer is one way to do so.

Both of these have had the completely white sky sky replaced. If it was too blue and focussed then it just wouldn't look right:

Another hint is to take photos of the sky under different overcast conditions and use them later. You're camera will expose the sky better if there's no dark foreground and it'll still look a bit more natural.

dandantheadminman

cool stuff hamish.

I might have a go at this later tonite

Hamish

dandantheadminman

wicked, thnx for the link

duncan_g

Ok, thanks. Ill carry on trying to make it better with v7.

duncan_g

Right, I think ive clicked it thanks to the opacity:

Hamish

That's certainly better but I'd maybe make it a bit more opaque. There's still a bit too much detail in the clouds, as compared to the hills in the background. I'd try and run either a lens blur filter (if ps 7 has one) or gaussian blur (narrow radius e.g. 1 or 2 pixels) on the sky layer and see if that makes it look a bit more real.

duncan_g

Ok, thanks very much. V7 has nearly all the same as cs2 so ill run a guassian blur and reduce the opacity thanks.

John

The latter looks better duncan.

The first attempt looks like telletubby land.

duncan_g

I know, thats why i posted it on here to get some advice.

duncan_g

Right, what do you think now?

John

Looking much better.

Is that light bit on top of his helmet natural?

dandantheadminman

dunno if it just me but does it look a lil outa focus, or blurred to you?

Hamish

That's much better, Duncan. Do you see what I was meaning about the sky looking better when it's not sharp or quite so bright? If you want to be really super accurate in the future, then you can use a sky photo where the sun is in roughly the same place as when you took the photo (e.g. behind you/to the left or right...) so that the light in the clouds matches the direction of the shadows.

And I forgot to mention - nice job taking care of the chairlifts.

Trail builder - When replacing the sky then you need to consider that the sky would be, at the most, only as in sharp as the background. Unless you've used a wide angle lens with a large depth of field, then it'll be a bit more blurred than the rest of the landscape. I think it looks much better with the blur.

duncan_g

Thanks very much. The rider is blurred cos i didnt pan it atall, but he wasnt moving very fast so its only blurred slightly.