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

Touched

Spent some time at our local Botanical Garden yesterday to get in some of the last few blooms of the season. They are fading fast, but hopefully to be replaced by some fall colors soon.

 

Thought I'd try something new and give a quick tutorial on how to create the effect on this photo.

Touched

 

I use Photoshop CS5 to create all my textured photos.  First I bring my RAW files into Adobe Camera Raw and adjust for exposure, contrast, and sharpness.  Opening the file into Photoshop, I then add my textures.  In the above photo, I added a bokeh layer set to Screen at 78% opacity and then a second texture layer by Distressed Jewel set to Soft Light at 58% opacity.  I then ran an action from Paint the Moon's Photoshop Elements Set, Fresh Wonderland, called Candy Light Pop adjusting layers to desired look.  If you'd like more information on using textures and actions, visit Rita at The Coffeeshop Blog.  She's got awesome tutorials, as well, as lots of freebies. 

 

To download your free bokeh layer, visit here.  I'd love to see what you create, send a photo to Facebook.  While there, please like our page.  Thanks for stopping by.