What to do when the sky is crummy?

[dmbpettit]

Here are a couple of pictures I took yesterday. I was in a great place for photos but the sky wasn't too good. What can be done to make these example look better? Or am I just screwed?

[mattograph]

Do you have photoshop?

[dmbpettit]

Yes. The first image looks a little weird after I posted it. The color space was on ProPhoto RGB.

[Grimlock]

I quite like the 2nd one. I think with a decent sky, you'd have a keeper.

Adding a more interesting sky is very common and easy to do!

MAY THERE BE SKY! [Tutorial] (http://freeonlineclasses.net/photoshop-tutorials/photo-retouching/cloudy-sky/showall.html)

[SwingBopper]

You need to correct the distortion caused by you not having the camera level and using a WA lens. You can always clone in a better sky too.

[chique]

Crummy sky? Crop it out or retake when there's a bit more drama in the sky.

[howaboutnow]

Pic 1 has lots of potential.

Pic 2 for some reason I do not like the trees in that picture, but the building is beautiful.

[PCthug]

What i do is go out and shoot pictures of just the sky.
That way you have a folder with interesting skys in that you can use on photos with boring sky in them.

I actually really like the perspective of the second one.

I have a 30 second mess around with yours, i am sure you can do much better if you take your time and work on the perspective and leaves a little to blend it in...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/Others/_MG_5106-Edit.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/Others/_MG_4947-Edit.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/Others/_MG_4947-Edit-1.jpg

Here is one of mine that had a totally white sky. Its not perfect, but its failings add the the atmospher (in my opinion).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/Black%20and%20whites/Church1.jpg

[Grimlock]

That's what I'm talking about, Thug. Nice "quick and dirties".

[dmbpettit]

PCThug, that's awesome. Can you point me to a tutorial on how to do this kind of blending. Also something about fixing the distortion?

[JoYork]

Nice work, PCThug :)

[jwkramer]

PCThug - I do the same thing. In fact, I have generated a couple of 'fake' skies in PS as well. They look pretty good in a pinch.

This shot has a PS generated sky in it:
http://www.pbase.com/jwkramer61/image/100457873/large.jpg

[cdifoto]

Exposure Blending.

[PCthug]

PCThug, that's awesome. Can you point me to a tutorial on how to do this kind of blending. Also something about fixing the distortion?

Grimlock posted a link to tutorial.
Follow this, but instead of creating a sky, import your own.

Take loads of photos of the sky, RAW is better, then you can make it dark and moody, or nice and light...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/testskylight.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/testskydark.jpg

You will need to feather the forwground picture, to blend it in with the sky better. Trees are tricky if your old sky has a little detail, but easier if it has none, as you can select the colour, which will also select between the branches etc.
You can also position the sky, stretch and shrink it, change the perspective, etc all quite easily to make it look its best.

Fake skies are ok, but you cant beat the real thing. The sky is in abundance, just go out and photograph it and stock pile those interesting cloud photos ready for use.

As for the distortion, i think it works well on this photo, and adds to the atmosphere, so would leave it.
To change it, open it in Photoshop, go to layer, and create layer from background. You will now have marching ants around the photo. Press ctr, and drag a corner of the photo to change persepective.
There are probably a hundred other better ways of doing it, but this is one of them.

[F4 Cyborg]

Sometimes you cant beat a good "Polarizing Filter"

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Polariser-guide

[nwa2]

Where the sky is cloudy it is better to be very cloudy and very white as in your shots rather than somewhere in between. This makes it far easier to cut out the sky.

Having said that I am not a sky hacker, so I tend to try to minimise or eliminate sky from the frame through composition,

[PCthug]

Sometimes you cant beat a good "Polarizing Filter"

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Polariser-guide

You certainly cant. It should be the first filter on your list, and the only one that cant be fully replicated in PS.
However, if the detail isnt there to begin with, or the sun is in the wrong position, it wont make too much of a difference.

[muttondraw]

I have a 30 second mess around with yours, i am sure you can do much better if you take your time and work on the perspective and leaves a little to blend it in...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/PCthug/Others/_MG_4947-Edit.jpg

Trickest thing with this one is going to be cutting out the tree. You will have to play around to get that to work otherwise it will always look false because of the light edges to the twigs and branches. You could try adding a layer with just the tree over the top of the current tree and set it to multiply, add a mask and fill that with black. Erase the twigs that look false on the background tree and then paint in the multiplied tree twigs where required.

M

[Andregen8]

While much can be done in PP, one observation is to wait until dusk, for at the right time, you can have incredible lighting effects regardless of the daylight "crumminess". The only downside would be to consider if the buildings are lite at night and if you have the time or opportunity to come back, but even than the setting sun can do wonders!

[PCthug]

Trickest thing with this one is going to be cutting out the tree. You will have to play around to get that to work otherwise it will always look false because of the light edges to the twigs and branches. You could try adding a layer with just the tree over the top of the current tree and set it to multiply, add a mask and fill that with black. Erase the twigs that look false on the background tree and then paint in the multiplied tree twigs where required.

M

The tree may not be that tricky.
What you could do is change the image to black and white, and add more contrast. Then make a selection of the bright sky, as this will be easy due to everything else being either black or white. Then transfer this selection mask over to the coloured image.
I will try in a day or so, and give it a go. It will take more than the minute or 2 i give my other photo adjustment though.