blue sky : PS CS or polarized filter !!

Hi dear friends,
may be my question is ..... , but : is there a way to increase the sky blue color in landscape pictures by PS CS or is the polarized filter mandatory?
any tips are very welcome
thanks in advance
Khalid

You can fudge things in PS, but they usually look artificial. There are a number of PS actions to fix blown skies or to give them that bluer than blue look. A polarizing filter will do a better job and it will also give foliage a better look too.

thanks kenny, so just a consequent question, are those "multicoated"expensive polarized filters any better than the "normal ones? I have a canon 17-40 zoom lens and want to use it a lot in asome landscape shots
regards
kh

Besides what Kenny wrote, I would add another tip. When I first started using a circular polarizer, I would always crank it around to the maximum. For some sky and cloud scenes, this can be nice. However, don't feel like you must set it to maximum each time. Especially if you have a rather wide angle lens, you might get too much of an effect. On a wide angle, it can work on one part of the sky too much and still leave another part alone, and some viewers find that objectionable.

So, try some "polarizer bracketing." Pick out your favorite scene and shoot it with the polarizer set for (1) maximum, (2) 50% of maximum, and (3) none at all. You won't be able to judge it on the rear display, so put it on the computer and see what you think.

---Bob Gross---

Occassionally, a technique that works (depending on the photo) is to create a new layer from the background. Then click on [Image] -> [Adjustment] -> [Replace Color]. Click on the sky in several places (with the eyedropper) and play around with the fuzziness value. (You can also use the eyedropper with the "plus" to add different shades.) When you have a good portion of the sky selected tweek the saturation, hue, etc. You can then change the opacity of this new layer down to 50%, or wherever, so the picture doesn't look too fake. Like I say, sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.