PP options w/ Gimp to bring the sky back in this photo

[JClishe]

This is a photo of Tiger Stadium with a severely blown-out sky. I don't have PhotoShop but have read some tutorials online about how to fix an overexposed sky with Gimp. I've tried some of them, such as using a transparent layer w/ gradient fill, but I just can't seem to bring the sky back enough.

If I crank down the brightness on the entire image all the way, I can tell that there are in fact details in the sky that I should be able to bring back. I just can't figure out how. I also have other photos of Tiger Stadium taken on the same day with much better exposure on the sky. I've tried cropping the sky out of another photo and overlaying it onto this photo, but I just can't get it right.

Can anyone offer suggestions or point me to a online reference that would explain how to do this?

Please note that this is an educational exercise only. I'm trying to understand what post-processing options are possible to fix this type of problem.

BTW - I have this in RAW.

Thanks!

 

[Heck]

Maybe just replace the sky. Take a look at this.

Replacing The Sky - Gimp | NZ Photo Info

 

[musicaleCA]

If you have RAW you can try using highlight recovery (in something similar to ACR) to bring down the blown highlights, but they're likely to be lacking in contrast. Are you sure there's detail there? It looks very blown-out.

 

[UUilliam]

TBH it looks like Dead pixels to me, You cant recover dead pixels..
what you have to do is go out take a photo of the sky then open both images up in gimp then put the Sky layer (image) into the image of the building, apply a mask to the sky layer then just paint out what piece of the sky you dont want (try brush as close to the building as possible)

 

[ocular]

Pen tool works better then the magic wand for sky selections.

 

[KmH]

It's been 2 weeks since the OP chimed in. Wonder what's up.

 

[Peano]

If Gimp has the equivalent of Photoshop's selective color adjustment layer, you can fix the sky without making any precise selections. There's a brief description of the technique here.

 

[KmH]

Your link doesn't work if you're not a member and logged on.

 

[UUilliam]

This is his guide (Peano)

1. Select the sky with the magic wand. This doesn't have to be terribly precise, because you'll be working on a layer mask.

2. Open a selective color adjustment layer. The selection will create a mask. At the bottom of the dialog box, choose "absolute" for the method. Go to the whites and increase black levels 10 to 15 clicks, cyans 5 or 6 clicks, and yellows -5 or -6 clicks (increases the blues). That's all done inside the whites channel. Then paint on the mask to clean up edges and white areas missed from the initial (wand) selection.

3. Add a blank layer, change blend mode to soft light, and apply a black gradient from the top down to the treetops. (You can use the selection from the previous step to keep the gradient from affecting anything below the sky. Adjust layer opacity to suit.

4. If you like, add some clouds. You can easily paint clouds with Nagel cloud brushes. There are several sets, all available for free download. Google for sites.

 

[manaheim]

omg the cheating is overwhelming...

Still cheating, but you could also simply take two corrected versions of the shot (one with the sky visible and one with the other stuff visible) and overlay them.

You could also use a graduated ND filter at capture.

 

[musicaleCA]

omg the cheating is overwhelming...

You could also use a graduated ND filter at capture.

+1