Editing this sky?

[terrypin]

I want to change the sky in this photo I've copied from Google Street View to look more like it did when I was there: basically dark and medium grey clouds, with no blue sky at all.



Other than carefully selecting it and replacing with an identical section from another photo, is there a faster and easier way to do it please? My attempts so far did a just-about-acceptable job on the clouds, by simply darkening them. But how to handle the blue? Replacing it with realistic grey shades (not a solid grey) eludes me.

It was actually raining too, but I'm not fussed about reproducing that. And I expect I'll also need to reduce the brightness of the foreground.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[LeviFiction]

Have you tried the hue/saturation/lightness command? With this dialog you can single out the blues in an image and swap out their hue, make them darker, or desaturate them making them a bit grey.

[terrypin]

Thanks LeviFiction. I did try it briefly but quickly gave up. Following your post I've had another go, and this time read the Help first. I've made some progress, but I find it hard going, especially using the 'control' ring, and I guess it needs regular use to become competent.

[Kathy_9]

Something like this? I selected the sky before desaturating the blues because there is blue throughout the entire image. Added a splash of rain too.

[terrypin]

Hi Kathy,

Excellent, thanks!

Can you please confirm the steps I took in PSP 8 were correct:

1. To select the sky I chose the magic wand with mode set to Brightness, then (with Shift key held) repeatedly clicked any sections that still had a marquee.

2. Then, with the selection still made, opened Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Hue/Saturation/Lightness

3. I'm still not confident on using this dialog methodically. So I wasn't quite sure what you meant by "...desaturating the blues". But when I just dragged the Saturation slider fully down as shown (without touching that complex pair of rings), I got a result that looked very similar to yours.



I haven't attempted the rain yet. Is that a transparent PNG you add as a new layer?

--------------------

P.S: Beautiful work on Flickr! Have you ever published any tutorials on your techniques? Or, even better, specific worked examples? No idea how I'll ever get time, but I'd love to learn more.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Kathy_9]

Hi Terry,

Your selection method sounds fine. I'm using PSP X8 and used the Smart Selection Brush to select the sky. By "desaturating the blues" I was referring to changing from Master to Blues and then dragging the Saturation slider down. See below.

Click for larger image

The rain was done by duplicating the layer and applying the Ulead Particle plug-in. I duplicated the layer because you can't apply this plug-in to a "empty" layer and I wanted to be able to adjust the opacity of the rain, so this was my workaround.

Hope that helps to explain what I did.

Thanks for the nice compliment on my Flickr page and no, I haven't published any tutorials. If you like something I did, and I can remember how I did it, I will be happy to help you learn.

[JoeB]

Something like this? I selected the sky before desaturating the blues because there is blue throughout the entire image. Added a splash of rain too.

Hope you don't think a comment is inappropriate and I think you did well with the sky. But it's not the sky the rain comes from but the clouds, and in this case they are still white which would be unnatural. I think they need some treatment to make the image more realistic. JMHO.

[hartpaul]

This more what you are after?

[carl365]

I'd probably put some puddles on the ground, make the sidewalk and street shiny and water running in the gutter. Perhaps looking through a window with rain drops? darker storm clouds?

[hartpaul]

Update: Added some reflections and chrome effect to road / pavement surfaces. Reduced brightness of rain.

[carl365]

Good job hartpaul, looks like a wet, stormy day.

[terrypin]

Update: Added some reflections and chrome effect to road / pavement surfaces. Reduced brightness of rain.

Brilliant, thank you! Although happily that very realistic weather looks even worse than it really was

If you get time, I'd much appreciate a brief summary of the steps you took please, even though it's possible some may not be identical in PSP 8.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[terrypin]

Hope that helps to explain what I did.

Yes, thanks a lot Kathy.

Thanks for the nice compliment on my Flickr page and no, I haven't published any tutorials. If you like something I did, and I can remember how I did it, I will be happy to help you learn.

I may well take you up on that in a week or two, thank you.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[terrypin]

I'd probably put some puddles on the ground, make the sidewalk and street shiny and water running in the gutter. Perhaps looking through a window with rain drops? darker storm clouds?

Hi Carl,

Yes, that 'through a window' idea would be nice for a card or similar. But my aim in this case was to make up for not taking a photo when we arrived at this B & B in the drizzle!(Part of the video/DVD I'm making, as I do of all our family holidays.)

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[photodrawken]

Just a couple of thoughts about converting to a drizzly day --
I went for a brief shower coming from a light overcast:

• The clouds would be a layered overcast, rather than well-defined cumulo-nimbus.
• The streaks from the rain drops should be very narrow, the individual streaks should be short, the amount of streaks should be fairly dense, and all the streaks should follow the same angle.
• Alter the contrast and brightness of the general scene, but not so much as to make the house appear to be painted a dark grey.
• Desaturate the brigh blue sky reflections on the car.
• The image doesn't have a main point of interest, so....

That's all probably too precise for your purpose of a video, but I think the effects shown in these posts are informative in case anyone needs to produce a stand-alone image.