How to make a white sky blue w/Adobe: Here in the gloomy gray winter Michigan I'm still taking bird pics. When the birds are above me I usually bump up the Exposure Compensation in...

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Here in the gloomy gray winter Michigan I'm still taking bird pics. When the birds are above me I usually bump up the Exposure Compensation in order to get some detail in them but then the sky shows up as a bright white. This make the contrast between the bird and the sky so stark that its hard to view the bird. I have Adobe CC - what are some techniques I can use to either turn that white sky into a pleasing powder blue sky or dulling the whiteness of the sky? To further complicate things, I usually take several pictures of the same bird so I would prefer a technique that can be applied (Synched?) to all the picts rather than one at a time. Thanks in advance.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If only we could do this in real life. : )

https://digital-photography-school.com/two-ways-replace-the-sky-using-photoshop/
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-replace-a-sky-in-photoshop/
https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/replace-sky/
https://photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/sky-replacement-and-adding-clouds-to-a-photo-in-photoshop-tutorial/
https://petapixel.com/2017/07/18/replace-sky-photo-photoshop-2-minute-tutorial/

LR can sync processing from one image to several others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEs2xFiokvk
https://www.lightroompresets.com/blogs/pretty-presets-blog/15510244-syncing-edits-on-multiple-images-in-lightroom
https://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2018/06/june-updates-to-lightroom-cc-sync-presets-copy-paste-edits-and-enhanced-sharing.html
https://www.slrlounge.com/workshop/five-ways-batch-process-images-lightroom/

lesdmd Loc: Middleton Wi via N.Y.C. & Cleveland

The problem will be the bulk processing you would like to accomplish. If the sky has some blue already in it , you could selectively increase the saturation in Lightroom and then sync across other images. Unfortunately the changes will be global and any “blue” in the image will be affected.
You can make changes to selective area of the image; but the synchronization will then be applied to the same area of subsequent images ...often where you may not want them.
Completely replacing the sky is not particularly difficult, but to my knowledge would need to be done one image at a time.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

MikWar wrote:

.../...I would prefer a technique that can be applied (Synched?) to all the picts rather than one at a time. .../...

You will not find one as each image has its own quirk...

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

jerryc41 wrote:

If only we could do this in real life. : ) br br... (show quote)

Thanks Jerry, good info.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

jerryc41 wrote:

If only we could do this in real life. : ) br br... (show quote)

Wow - thanks for all the links. I'll let you know which one(s) I end up using.
Mike

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

MikWar wrote:

Here in the gloomy gray winter Michigan I'm still ... (show quote)

Sky replacement is fairly straightforward, but you'll need to examine the light on the bird as well - if you replace white with blue, where is the sun and what shadows are being created, etc. It's not that simple to create a credible image. You can forget about batch processing a sky replacement. Each one has to be done individually.

If you are using the latest version of Photoshop, here is a good workflow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jfdzvnx8QQ

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Gene51 wrote:

Sky replacement is fairly straightforward, but you'll need to examine the light on the bird as well - if you replace white with blue, where is the sun and what shadows are being created, etc. It's not that simple to create a credible image. You can forget about batch processing a sky replacement. Each one has to be done individually.

If you are using the latest version of Photoshop, here is a good workflow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jfdzvnx8QQ

Thanks - I'll check it out.
Mike

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

You will get a lot of different replies but...

If you use PS... simply keep a RAW sky photo as a layer (to use over and over). Standard procedure would be to use "Blend If" and a mask with the sky layer. Light modes you select can add different effects. If the sky your replacing is grayish then select the sky and mask with "select color range". You can record this action to make all of this very fast and repeatable.

Many tutorials on Youtube that cover sky's and creating actions. This will give you perfect results.

(I am a photojournalist and professional photo editor.)

MikWar wrote:

Here in the gloomy gray winter Michigan I'm still ... (show quote)

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

catchlight.. wrote:

You will get a lot of different replies but...

If you use PS... simply keep a RAW sky photo as a layer (to use over and over)....

Thanks for the suggestion. I will check it out.
Mike

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Gene51 wrote:

Sky replacement is fairly straightforward, but you'll need to examine the light on the bird as well - if you replace white with blue, where is the sun and what shadows are being created, etc. It's not that simple to create a credible image. You can forget about batch processing a sky replacement. Each one has to be done individually.

If you are using the latest version of Photoshop, here is a good workflow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jfdzvnx8QQ

berchman Loc: South Central PA

jerryc41 wrote:

If only we could do this in real life. : ) br br... (show quote)

You should incorporate Gene51's link into your sky replacement library:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jfdzvnx8QQ

ceallachain Loc: Cape May, NJ

Curious, before I start opening any of them, Will they also work work with Elements?

https://digital-photography-school.com/two-ways-replace-the-sky-using-photoshop/
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-replace-a-sky-in-photoshop/
https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/replace-sky/
https://photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/sky-replacement-and-adding-clouds-to-a-photo-in-photoshop-tutorial/
https://petapixel.com/2017/07/18/replace-sky-photo-photoshop-2-minute-tutorial/

LR can sync processing from one image to several others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEs2xFiokvk
https://www.lightroompresets.com/blogs/pretty-presets-blog/15510244-syncing-edits-on-multiple-images-in-lightroom
https://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2018/06/june-updates-to-lightroom-cc-sync-presets-copy-paste-edits-and-enhanced-sharing.html
https://www.slrlounge.com/workshop/five-ways-batch-process-images-lightroom/[/quote]

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

For me, no... I do it daily.

There are a multitude of methods using PS.

I do get 100% perfect results without affecting the subject, but sometimes the color blue will mimic a reflected color and can be desirable.

A recent shoot I did is being published in a national magazine with 50 images that all have replaced sky's.

If you don't have the some of the basic concepts learned yet, you can get a lot of information from studying the tutorials online.

It's never too late to learn, know it all... or want to

kmpankopf Loc: Mid-Michigan; SW Pennsylvania

Usually, if I remember, I take a photo of the sky at the beginning of a series of shots. I can use the sky if necessary and it is theoretically the correct shade for the subject. And it builds quite a library of skies.