Too much Blue! Just reviewing my pics after shooting all day in Nova Scotia and see that while I thought I was careful using my polarizing filter, my skies are way too dark. Any...

bbq4270 Loc: Blainville, Quebec Canada

Just reviewing my pics after shooting all day in Nova Scotia and see that while I thought I was careful using my polarizing filter, my skies are way too dark. Any suggestions on how to lighten the blue sky in photoshop? I tried adjust my blue color with very little success. Thanks.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Share the downloads and I’m sure one of our talented post-processors will be able to help.

Andy

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The post processing section would be a good place to move this request, as well as posting an original image and storing the attachment.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

bbq4270 wrote:

Just reviewing my pics after shooting all day in Nova Scotia and see that while I thought I was careful using my polarizing filter, my skies are way too dark. Any suggestions on how to lighten the blue sky in photoshop? I tried adjust my blue color with very little success. Thanks.

I had the same problem shooting at high altitude in the Rockies once. I was still using slide film and was able to "somewhat" correct in digital but it took much work.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

bbq4270 wrote:

Just reviewing my pics after shooting all day in Nova Scotia and see that while I thought I was careful using my polarizing filter, my skies are way too dark. Any suggestions on how to lighten the blue sky in photoshop? I tried adjust my blue color with very little success. Thanks.

If you shot them as raw, then all you need to do is adjust the hue, saturation and luminance for the color you are trying to fix. If you only have jpegs, then you may try a selection then a mask, to isolate the sky area, and you can do any number of things to it, but without seeing a sample image I cannot help you any further.

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

In photoshop there are several ways but the simplest way is to adjust with the "color balance filter. You can lighten or darken blue with the bottom slider and do other adjustments with hue. Same is true in Lightroom or Photoshop camera Raw. instead of removing blue try the light/ dark (Luminescence) sliders.

bbq4270 wrote:

Just reviewing my pics after shooting all day in Nova Scotia and see that while I thought I was careful using my polarizing filter, my skies are way too dark. Any suggestions on how to lighten the blue sky in photoshop? I tried adjust my blue color with very little success. Thanks.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Gene51 wrote:

If you shot them as raw, then all you need to do is adjust the hue, saturation and luminance for the color you are trying to fix. If you only have jpegs, then you may try a selection then a mask, to isolate the sky area, and you can do any number of things to it, but without seeing a sample image I cannot help you any further.

Even if you did not shoot in raw, in some programs (including PS and PSE) you can open a .jpg "open in camera raw". You likely won't be able to do as much with it as with an actual raw file, but it might help.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

bbq4270 wrote:

Just reviewing my pics after shooting all day in Nova Scotia and see that while I thought I was careful using my polarizing filter, my skies are way too dark. Any suggestions on how to lighten the blue sky in photoshop? I tried adjust my blue color with very little success. Thanks.

Sounds like you used maximum effect, when it was not necessary. Get it right 'in camera' saves a lot of work in PP. Did you not review one or two results while you were there.??

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Morning Star wrote:

Even if you did not shoot in raw, in some programs (including PS and PSE) you can open a .jpg "open in camera raw". You likely won't be able to do as much with it as with an actual raw file, but it might help.

That is always an option. Most raw converters allow jpeg editing. And Photoshop CC has a camera raw filter that is exactly like the ACR interface. Good for simple corrections, but it can go wrong if you try to adjust it too much.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I find that cyan will frequently tone down a blue instead of using the blue slider.

notnowdarnit

Change the white balance.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Just reduce the saturation of the entire picture, or learn to just reduce saturation of the blues in the image.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Interesting. I know how to adjust the RGB intensities of even JPGs in only one of the editing programs I have, Zoombrowser which came with a Canon camera. I can't figure out how to do it in DPP4, Picasa, or Photoshop 7.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I use shadows and highlights. It lets you adjust shadows, highlights, mid tone contrast and saturation.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Having experienced what I will call the "...high altitude factor" and using polarizing filters I am sure you are as disappointed as I was. A dark sky can be a real sky but not if polarization has shifted it and possibly if the lens was wide enough even distorted the even-ness of the blue. In the beginning my naivety about polarization led to serious errors. It is one of those situations that only experience helps.