JimNorthTexas

I don't need dramatic skies, even for vacation photos. But for shots I want to print I prefer a nice blue sky with some clouds and then bring out some detail.

Please share your tips on taking your own: like camera settings, from your roof or ground, anything. And after taking them could you give some detail on what you do with them in PS, LR if anything.

On cloud brushes, do you use them? Do you make your own or buy them? Any techniques both in camera and your editing program of choice that you would be kind enough to share?

Any techniques you saw on the web about the above that you could share?

How do you match the new sky to the photo?

Thank you for help. Looking forward to you comments & suggestions, and hopefully a few techniques.
Just trying to start collecting skies and know what to do with them when I get a photo that I want to print where the sky is not ideal.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

I have several hundred cloud shots in my library. I used to hunting cool sky shots like blazing sun sets, massive storm clouds. But as I came to learn those kinds of shots are seldom useful for sky replacements. I now shoot sky shots with my Samsung cell phone. Scattered clouds, wispy white clouds, stratus clouds. Shots where the clouds take up a small portion of the sky. I center the target to give me leeway on placing it as a background. The only PP I do is cropping.

Luminar is, in my estimation, the best sky replacement tool available. When I am in a hurry I use Photoshop sky replacement tool. I don't use cloud brushes. There are almost always sky shots and background shots if you look for them.

I match the sky by trial and error until I get one I like.

Hope this helps. It works for me

Quixdraw Loc: x

I just don't. A different part of the art. Not something of interest to me. The sky I see is what I get in the photo.

Bill_de Loc: US

This very recent thread on the subject might shed some light on the subject for you.

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-701238-1.html

--

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I don't replace skies (at least for now) but I have been doing quite a bit of experimentation, both with raw and JPEG captures. The first thing I would suggest you do is set your camera to JPEG, learn how to do picture control adjustments, then go outside on a day with interesting clouds. Play with exposure, contrast, sharpness, and saturation to see what effects various adjustments have where you can see those results against the actual clouds. You can get pretty dramatic results by reducing exposure (to enhance highlight detail), increasing saturation (to strengthen the blue of the sky), and increase contrast (to make the clouds stand out from the sky).

Use Daylight white balance. The predominance of blue just about guarantee that Automatic White Balance is going to hand you a big mess.

For metering, I have used matrix metering with -2 stops of EC, and I have used spot metering with +2 stops of EC, and sometimes different levels of adjustment work better. Experiment and learn what works.

Here's the really cool thing, if you've stayed with me this far. If you have a modern camera with wide dynamic range, and if you are saving raw files, and if you can coax a pretty decent sky, you can turn the normal process upside down. Expose for the sky, trust your camera's capability, and bring up the terrestrial elements (which are shadows and midtones) in post production.

I know you said that you aren't looking for dramatic skies, but the first image in this post:

https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-555526-1.html

is an image that I captured about three years ago. It was made during blue hour, but illustrates the technique. Exposure was for the sky, and the rest of the image was brought up during post processing. The adjustment was something like two stops, as I recall. (There was also a large white balance adjustment to the entire frame, because my camera, a D810, did not go as far as the 20,000K that I needed.)

I encourage you to play, experiment, and learn. There are lots of fun things to do that can be found outside the ordinary boxes of photographic process.

fantom Loc: Colorado

Sounds exactly like my process, especially building your own library of sky shots.

JimNorthTexas

Curmudgeon, thank you for sharing your system of doing this. What is the resolution of the camera on your phone? After sky replacement using one of your skies from your phone how large was the print you made? Again, thank you.

JimNorthTexas

quixdraw, I can appreciate your point of view. Some do, some don't. And in a lot of cases neither is wrong. I would only be doing this for photos that be displayed on the walls and tables in my home. If I love a photo but the sky in my opinion slightly takes away from the photo because it is a dull gray or a simple blue and both have no character like a few clouds I'm going to replace it or add a few clouds. But I wouldn't want the new sky to dominate the photo, just sort of fit in. Whatever, or whomever was the subject of the photo should be the first thing you set your eyes on.
Thanks for commenting.

JimNorthTexas

Bill_de, appreciate the link. Some interesting thoughts over there. Some of the best was from mwsilves and EL Shapiro. I really agree with EL Shapiro posted yesterday at 23:47:03.

JimNorthTexas

larryepage, I appreciate you spilling to all of us your methods, settings and tips. I like what you said in the post, actually both! As from your photos I really enjoyed Jacks Bus.
Thank you Larry.

JimNorthTexas

fantom, thanks for stopping by and doubling up on Curmudgeon's routine.

JimNorthTexas

Thanks everyone!

Fstop12 Loc: Kentucky

I have a fairly extensive sky replacement images that I have built up over the years. I don't do many sky replacements but I have them if I need them. In addition to capturing skies with clouds, I think it is important to think about time of day and even time of year your replacement skies are captured. Golden Hour, Sunset, Blue Hour, Nautical Twilight, Astronomical Twilight, and Night time, Sunrise etc. All of these times have different lighting conditions that you can use to help match the time of day and time of year your original image was taken. Notice I said help, because every original image will be different but the time of day/year shots will help speed the process of trying to blend the replacement sky with the scene in the original image.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I'm with quixdraw on this topic. My feeling is, just because one can do something doesn't mean one should.

But, as a lot of folks would opine, do whatever makes you happy. It's just not my cup of tea.
--Bob

Peteso Loc: Blacks Hills

I use ON1’s cloud brushes, which work well.