Replacing the Sky in a Picture
By John Sweeney - 16th of January 2007
Have you ever looked at the sky in one or more of your pictures and though If only I could change it – Well, now you can.
- Open you image in Photoshop in the normal way.
- Open the image containing the sky you would like to use on your picture.
If you don't have a suitable sky picture to use you can always take your digital camera outside and take a few pictures of the sky, or maybe when you are out and about with your camera just take a few shots of the sky, they might come in handy some day.
- On the picture you wish to change use the magic wand tool on your toolbar (W on your keyboard) on the sky area, just click it and it should select it all, if it doesn't maybe it's because you have bushes or a tree in the image, this is almost always impossible to do because there are gaps between the branches etc which you just do not seem to be able to select. Before you actually use the magic wand make sure that you have made the appropriate selections on the contextual bar, which is the area just below the menu-bar in Photoshop. At the far left you will see the tool you have selected as a small icon, just to the right of that there are 3 or 4 little icons, a single icon allows the user to make and change selections, but only one at a time, the second icon is a small pair of boxes, this allows the user to add to the selection, this is the box to click on, and the third set allow the user to subtract an area from a selection.
- Next there is the tolerance box, this should be set at about 30, so it allows quite a wide selection, make sure that the anti-aliased and contiguous boxes are ticked, now you are ready to make a selection. To prevent the edges being harsh you are now able to select feather, Go to the Menu-bar, Select the word Select then feather and set the feather range anywhere between 3 and 5.
- Select the area of sky you want to change, when you have selected all of the sky you will see the lines all round it apparently moving, this is commonly known as the marching ants effect..
- Change your tool from the magic wand to the move tool (V on your keyboard) and click on the image you are going to use as the replacement sky, then Ctrl A and Ctrl C, this selects the image and then copies it to the clipboard.
- Go back to the first image and click on it, the click on the Edit command and the paste into command. Or, using the keyboard controls as an alternative, Shift Ctrl V,
(The normal paste command is Ctrl V), now the other picture should appear on the sky area, and, since you already have the move tool selected you can click on that image and move it around to suit. When you are happy leave it where it is.
- On the layers pallet (F7 to open it) you have two layers, flatten the layers, give it a new name and save the picture. The job is done. If there are any areas of the picture where gaps have occurred you can easily enlarge the picture and use the heal tool or the clone tool or a paintbrush, but remember, be a little subtle and reduce the opacity considerably so changes are not too easy to spot.
I wish you every success.
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