how to make sky bluer

[spotodog]

hi all,
i have been trying to make the sky bluer on this picture i took yesterday while snowshoeing ... i know there are different methods, but can someone suggest one for this picture. i have posted it at
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Yye9V3d3NvFLNxQDGMw7bwDa2gFq0

. i am having trouble selecting the sky since there are a lot of branches.

anyway, help from you gurus would be appreciated!
thanks,
eleanor

[jwhitten]

Hi Eleanor,

That is a tough pic to modify. The sky seems totally resistant to any type of hue change.

I applied a solid color layer to the photo, used a dark blue and then erased everything but the sky...

http://www.joewhitten.com/photos/eleanor.jpg

and if that helps you, here is the .psd file

http://www.joewhitten.com/photos/eleanor.psd

Joe

[Daviskw]

Hello eleanor

It is a little tough with a busy background but you don't have to be perfect. I played a few minutes with the picture and got it pretty good I think.

I just used the magic wand with the tolerance set at 15 and contiguous unchecked. I clicked around between the trees not too worried if it bled into the snow. When I got most of the sky selected I took a selection brush, held the “alt” key and erased the selections I did not want. Then I pressed “Crt J” to put the sky on its own layer. Then I used the Hue/saturation on the sky. There were a few areas of blue on the snow and I just erased them.

Hope this helps Butch


http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/9440/test8ad.th.jpg (http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test8ad.jpg)

[elementary watson]

Butch...

I'm amazed that you were able to do that in a few minutes. I took a look at the picture and immediately thought ....no way! I guess this PSE4 is a lot more versatile and powerful than it first seems. I'm finding out that the selection tools are going to be a VERY important part of the toolkit.Right now, I can only dream.:cool:

[Carbone]

Eleanor,

I used a gradient layer, from sky blue to white, set it blending mode to darken, then erase two spot where the snow wasn't to my liking.

Here's the result :

http://www.pbase.com/carbone/image/54619511/original

Ray

[David Asch]

I used a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Selected Blues from the menu and clicked around the mid-point of the sky (which is actually cyan). I adjusted the hue and sat to +28 and +21 respectively. It does affect the snow but a lot of that is a reflection of the sky anyway.

http://blacksilverpurple.net/Storage/Blue.jpg

[spotodog]

[QUOTE=Carbone]Eleanor,

I used a gradient layer, from sky blue to white, set it blending mode to darken, then erase two spot where the snow wasn't to my liking.

Hi,
I tried your method and it worked quite well (i really found it hard to select the sky because of all the branches, so the gradient was great).
But what i don't understand is why the branches didn't turn blue - the color of the sky changed, but not the branches...obviously i'm not complaining, but i just don't understand ...
thanks,eleanor

[Carbone]

The secret is in the pudding.. :)

Really, it's the blending mode. Darken will compare the underlying layer's every pixel with the current one. It will darken only those pixels which are lighter. In this case, blue being more dark than white and cyan, then everything white and cyan turns blue. However, brown is darker so it stays brown.

Hope this helps!

Ray

[spotodog]

wow! that is cool...so much to learn...but that really helps.
thanks,
eleanor