Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

We are in Estonia a little country which shares a border with Russia. This the Pirita river.
In this Challenge you need a new sky to replace the white sky (over-exposed areas). The river should reflect the sky of your choice.

1. The new sky must be visible through the branches of the trees.

2. The reflections of your sky need to blend with the details of the river.

3. Improve the scene any way you want to enhance the scene, but it must be in context.

Context: A scene to sell Estonia as a tourist destination.

Sorry no RAW file. The png file will be fine. Have fun.

(Download)

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

I used relight landscape and sharpen in Smart Photo Editor and also cropped a little on top and bottom.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Thank you for posting your work, photophile. However, I cannot comment until you repost and please click the 'store original' box. This will allow members to click download and see your image full scale. Thank you.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Here it is with download:

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Oops! Photophile, if you clicked the (store original) box something is not working. I have posted an image to show you the box you need to click on.
Alternatively, it could be that your image is too big to load. If your image is above 3000 pixels on the longest side reduce it to 3000 pixels and try again.

(Download)

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

OK Shakey. I knew I couldn't comment until I posted so here is my post. I don't expect you to like this but here are my reasons. I can't get rid of the harsh blue out from around the tree leaves in the upper right. I also couldn't get rid of the halo around the trees in the middle. I might have been mildly ok with the trees on the right. Because of all this I could not replace the sky. I din't know why all the problems were in the original photo except that it was so underexposed in the first place. I would like to here back from you as to how to correct and if you might have a corrected version you did so all of us can see what you might have expected.
Thanks,
Jim

(Download)

SoHillGuy Loc: Washington

Used On1 to replace the sky, and adjust colors.

(Download)

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Very good, SoHillGuy. You did a great job with a difficult image. I would have liked it brighter with more impact. However, you get five thumbs for technical ability.

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Jim, you are trying too hard to work with tools that will not do the job. Stop and think. What can you do to compensate when something ugly rears its head?
Why you cover it up with something that adds impact. You get four thumbs for doing your best and asking for an explanation. Here's what I did:


1. Adjusted White Balance to give an autumnal look. (This is Europe, they say autumn we say fall.)

2. Selected all the nasty stuff and deleted it.

3. Used copy and paste tools to cover any small nasty areas left over.

4. Made a selection of the big white area and bucket filled it with pale blue.

5. Selected the white areas of the river, chose a paler blue and bucket filled those. The pale blue so pale it did not interfere with the reflections.

6. Painted clouds on the sky.

7. Took an image of a tree in fall foliage, removed the background, and copied a suitable section of the tree.

8. Pasted the tree foliage onto the image and moved it around to cover nasties. Repeated on other side.

I used layers of course. Here's the finished image. (BTW, I did say add anything you want to improve the image.)

(Download)

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

Thank you Shakey for your explanation and example. I did think about doing exactly what you are suggesting but thought you wanted us to NOT change the picture.
This will help in further challenges. BTW your edit is the best. I think I can give you 5 thumbs up.

Shakey Loc: Traveling again to Norway and other places.

Golly! Five thumbs! Thanks, Jim. LOL, I know how you feel, I have been known to misread instructions. (Especially those written by my wife. )