How to Do Masking For Sky or Window Replacement
June 10th, 2008
Doing quick Photoshop masks for sky replacement or window replacement on interior shots is a frequent need that real estate photographers have.
The crux of creating such masks is that the mask edges are never clean and simple. Like the image in my demonstration video, the mask between the sky and the foreground can be complicated with lacy trees and branches. Same for interiors with plants and other complicated objects in front of the window. How do you create masks like this without spending hours in Photoshop?
As everything in Photoshop, here are many ways to do this but here I show you my favorite one since it is so fast and easy. It may look daunting at first but if you look carefully you’ll see there are just three simple steps. The lacy trees along the skyline make this image harder than most. With this approach on many images that have mostly hard edges along the skyline you can just increase the contrast of the mask and quickly get a perfect mask. With this example you can’t do that because of the delicateness of the trees along the skyline… believe me, I tried.
I’m still working on improving the quality of these screen capture videos. Phil Meadows and I are thinking about doing a whole series of post-processing videos. What subjects would you like to see in this area?
15 Responses to “How to Do Masking For Sky or Window Replacement”
Photo News Today » Blog Archive » How to Do Masking For Sky or Window Replacement June 10th, 2008 at 10:36 am #
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Dylan Darling June 10th, 2008 at 12:07 pm #
Awsome technique. I think it’s going to save me hours a week! Thanks for this and all the other info on this site!
Marek June 10th, 2008 at 6:35 pm #
Nice tutorial Larry. It’s a slightly different way of blue-channel masking than I was doing before, but seems to work very well. I think i’ll be using this one in future for those pesky selections!
Tufuse is also very good for this type of thing, using Jeremy’s tutorial. I think it depends on what is being done though.
Milton June 10th, 2008 at 11:51 pm #
Thanks Larry for taking the time. This is one area I haven’t got my head around yet as I try to master the transition from iPhoto to PE4, to LR and now PE 6 (not to mention PT Lens!!). Huge learning curves!! Lynda.com looking like getting a new customer!
I have previously used the Magic Extractor in PE4 and then cutting and pasting from my “sky library”, but there seems so many ways to replace a sky.
Con Poulos June 11th, 2008 at 12:09 am #
I cannot view the video.. Its no longer active is the message I get online.. Any suggestions?
Christo June 11th, 2008 at 2:40 pm #
Good stuff larry very Useful.
I saw a similar thing in an old book by Design Graphics.
Its a few years old but awesome tips by some of the retouching worlds best Ben Wilmore etc .Studio Skills for 7 and CS
Its still available I strongly recommend it.The images are not realestate but the techniques are excellent exactly what you need, its very well put together and simple to follow.
Have a look Larry .
Dale Charles June 11th, 2008 at 4:36 pm #
Great tut, thanks for that! You might add your Feather Radius settings and that you can “create a selection” after using the pen tool (around roof of house) and then chose Select > Modify > Contract to size it down by Pixel size if alignment is a little big, great lesson though I learned a few new tricks thanks!
Anonymous June 11th, 2008 at 10:51 pm #
I learned stuff! Thanks Larry.
larry June 12th, 2008 at 8:05 pm #
@Con – I’m not sure what the problem might be. Yours is the only report I gotten with troubles viewing the video. Have you tried different browsers? Can you view other youtube videos? I just tried it a it works OK for me with Firefox and Safari.
David Lenhert June 15th, 2008 at 3:27 pm #
Great tutorial Larry! I’ll be able to use that in lots of situations including sky replacement. I’m curious however, in this particular example would you have found using Viveza faster and just as effective?
larry June 15th, 2008 at 5:46 pm #
@David – Viveza could darken, lighten the sky or make it a color but in this situation I had a nicely exposed sky with clouds that I wanted to put in over the poorly exposed sky. So Viveza wouldn’t help with that. Also, after you practice this technique a few times it is ridiculously fast. When the skyline is sharp and high contrast the mask doesn’t require refining like this lacy one did.
sylvia March 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 am #
hi larry! i was in a tight situation just now editing some pics. the light was very contrasted and i couldn’t get good detail on both sky and house, so i started looking for this tutorial and quickly found it!
it’s amazing, in just minutes i got the result i wanted. a very quick and effective solution to my problem! the selection was perfectly done, it looks very natural.
thanks!!
larry March 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 am #
Sylvia- Yes, for complicated selections like trees on a skyline this approach is hard to beat!
Peter August 23rd, 2009 at 5:59 pm #
Hi Larry–
I would love to see a multi-strobe/ambient blending tutorial. I know the basics but I’d like to learn the finer steps.
Cheers.
David Lenhert September 26th, 2009 at 9:37 pm #
Hi Larry,
I’ve used your technique and some other variations with pretty good success; some more than others. Good masking results can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you are pressed for time.
I just received notification of a new Photoshop plugin tool from Topaz Labs that I wanted to make you aware of; which may prove quite useful to our community of real estate photographers…
Product details can be viewed at: http://www.topazlabs.com/remask/
You can get a free 30 day trial of any of their products. I have yet to test this one thoroughly, however, I have used several of their other products and can recommend them very highly.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Regards,
David