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OK, I had a lot of "fun" with this one!
I choose the most difficult example I could find, and the result isn't too bad. Here's the original:
- I made two copies of the background layer.
- On the uppermost layer copy, I converted it to Black & White using the "Scenic Landscape" setting and increased the contrast to get this image to use for selecting the sky:
- On that B&W layer, I used the Magic Wand with a "Tolerance" of 35, and set to "Anti-alias" and de-sesected "Contiguous" to select the sky.
- Then, I used Selection...Refine Edge with these settings: Smooth 0px, Feather 0.0px, Contract/Expand +15%.
- I used the Selection Brush Tool in "Selection" mode to clean up the selection -- eliminating areas in the foreground, middle ground and tree trunks, etc, that had been selected by the Magic Wand.
- Then, working on the other Background copy layer, I deleted that fixed-up (sky) selection.
- I pasted in a cloud photo on its own layer. The layers wound up looking like this:
Here's the final result:
There still are some white artifacts around some small details. I think that by experimenting with the B&W conversion and its contrast and levels, the sky selection could be made more accurately and those artifacts eliminated. However, I ain't gettin' paid for this
so I'll stop....Ken
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This example isn't nearly as nice to look at as photodrawken's (nice job), but shows
a slightly different way as described here:
http://kb2.adobe.com/community/publishing/502/cpsid_50242.html
before:
layers palette:
after sky replacement:
Just two things:
1. use a levels adjustment layer instead of a curves layer
2. where is says select the bottom most layer and add a curves adjustment layer, that
means the bottom sky layer.
MTSTUNER
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Making a mask for the image you posted is not easy in photoshop elements, so
i kinda cheated by using a plugin called Mac's Remove White filter which is free.
http://www.pspug.org/filters/filtersff.shtml
1. Duplicated the background layer and ran the remove white filter to create a mask.
2. Put the new sky below the remove white layer.
3. Turned of the visibility of all the layers except the background layer and defined a pattern
from that layer. (pse doesn't have history brush, so a pattern makes a good substitute)
4. Made the layers visible and made a merged copy for the restore from history layer.
5. Selected the Pattern Stamp Tool set to aligned and that pattern and painted back
in the areas the plugin removed and over the blue in the trees.
MTSTUNER
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Thanks for the explanation.
I fooled around with the idea of creating a mask by first making 4 copies of the image and successively blending them with "Linear Burn" and merging them down, one by one. That worked OK to get a high contrast image that I converted to B&W, then used Levels to eliminate the grays. The result was a very good image to use for selecting the trees (or sky), and I could use that to create a mask for the image to let the clouds show through.
However, after a few hours of playing around, I still wound up with "ghostly" looking branches (the thinnest branches). It turns out that in the original image the fine tracery of the small branches is mostly shades of gray. That's not a problem in the original image, where the sky is pale gray, but after applying a dark sky, those gray branches looked awful.
So, the image I chose is the limiting factor here. If I add a dark sky, I'm forced to "squeeze" down the width of the branches to the point where the thinnest ones are lost. This is what I showed in the final image in my previous post, and that final image is pretty much the best that can be done given the original image and the desire to add in a dark sky.
Whew! Did more stuff with levels, conversions, selections, contractions, feathering, etc., than I expected!
Ken
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Bingo! That's the way to do it -- your final image is the best one yet. I always ignored that Remove White plug-in, because I thought I could accomplish the same using the built-in PSE tools, but your example disproves that theory.
Thanks also for the tip about creating a pattern for adding back in the image areas. That'll come in handy.
I'll give it a try and see how it works when using a sky photo with dark sky showing behind the upper branches....
Ken
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Mark,
Thanks for that link to KillWhite. It works perfectly here.
Here's the final result, and it looks very good. Just a little wonkiness in the leaves on the upper right:
Couldn't be simpler -- these are the layers:
N.B.: There is a noticeable tradeoff in quality when using the KillWhite filter, however. It reduces the white component of the pixels throughout the entire image, resulting in a noticeable colour shift and value change (darker). The right side of this image is the original, the left side has been processed with KillWhite:
Ken
Added:
Just noticed that the large tree trunks were blown out by KillWhite and the blue sky is showing through them. Will need to use MTSTUNER's method of implementing a Pattern Stamp to restore the original trunks.
Message was edited by: photodrawken -- Additional thoughts.
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Aha! I discovered that the KillWhite filter will respect a selection, so I didn't need to set up a Pattern Stamp as a history tool to restore parts of the original image. Before using KillWhite, I simply used the Selection Brush tool (in "Mask" mode) to protect areas of the image:
Then, applying KillWhite gives this result:
Much better!
Ken
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Thank you photodrawken, MSTUNER and Mark Sand for ALL of your wonderful help with this one!!
It's my first experience with a question to the Forum and I was surprised at all the great responses to help me! Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to sit with it and go through all the steps but hope to be able to in the next couple days!!!!Have a great week!
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