Fix Those Skies

For those of you new to Photoshop and Lightroom, there is an awesome tool that has become my new best friend.  It's called the Dehaze tool.  It can be found in your Photoshop CC Adobe Camera Raw under the FX tool button or in Lightroom CC in your list of tools towards the bottom.  What an amazing tool that can clear up those hazy skies with a quick slide.  It allows you to bring back those blown out skies and enhance your cloud details.  Now, the before picture is the straight out of camera version before any editing has been done.

BEFORE

The above picture shows what the camera sees.  It was a gray day, but I remember the beautiful city of Bath with lots more color.  The image is dull and you can't see a bit of sky detail. 

I always, ALWAYS work in RAW typically setting my camera settings to both RAW and High Quality JPEG.  So, in Adobe Camera Raw which is what brings up your RAW files to be edited before they are converted to a JPEG, I've adjusted my Dehaze slider to +32, Highlights to -54 and Shadows to +88.  I also used my Adjustments Brush to add a little coolness to the Exposure of the sky leaving the landscape in a warmer tone as shot.  Along with some other adjustments to contrast and color (which you can use at your discretion), we now have an image that captures more realistically what I saw that day.

AFTER