A Technique For Quick Sky Replacement in Photoshop or PSE
May 23rd, 2011
Thanks to Jonathan Calvert of Houston, TX for passing along his tutorial for a quick and easy way to replace skies. Jonathan says, “I know there has been a hundred tutorials on sky replacement, but they all seem too “intricate” for fast turn around real estate pictures, especially if you have multiple outdoor shots on each house and you are shooting 10 homes per day. Therefore, I did a screen recording showing the method I do.”
The other thing I like about this technique is that it works will most versions of both Photoshop Elements and Photoshop. It makes use of the magic wand selection tool which has been in all versions of Photoshop and PSE for a long while.
If you need skys to use with this technique don’t forget the PFRE Sky library.
6 Responses to “A Technique For Quick Sky Replacement in Photoshop or PSE”
Joshua Vensel May 24th, 2011 at 5:11 am #
Awesome, John. I’d call it quick and dirty, but it looks quick and clean to me!
Rocky Lane May 24th, 2011 at 12:52 pm #
Jon, thanks for your quick successful solution to “fixing” sky color!
Robert Barr May 24th, 2011 at 3:41 pm #
I am not sure I like that method. Topaz Remask does quite a good job and is much easier then that. Even using the background eraser tool with discontinuous and selecting the Grey sky works better. Using magic wand IMO should be a last resort.
Jonathan Calvert May 24th, 2011 at 3:58 pm #
Thanks guys! Robert, I will check out Topaz. I am interested in anything that will save me time. Thanks for post.
Robert Barr May 24th, 2011 at 6:26 pm #
@John I think the reason I shy away from doing magic wand is that I live in the pacific north west. Many of the properties I shoot have heavy tree cover in the back ground. It becomes hard to magic wand it all out. The TopazRemask does a fantastic job of calculating what should go and what should stay.
I am also evaluating a couple other re-masking tools to see if they offer any better results. So far though TopazRemask is doing the best job for me.
Molly Smith May 25th, 2011 at 2:04 pm #
Thanks so much! That looks great!