Editing dark pictures and blue skys

[dondulah]

Hello, I am trying to take pictures of houses, brighten up the house, and edit the sky so it is blue. I can't just take pictures on Sunny days, because Michigan is ranked to be pretty low, on sunny days proportionately... . I have read some online tutorials, and its pretty easy to lighten the picture. However, is there a quick and dirty way to make the sky blue. I don't need it perfect, but somewhat realistic and blue. Is there a software that if I am doing multiple a day, let's say 100 sky blue edits/day, that is time efficient? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[runnah]

Honestly I think adding in blue sky to cloud day photos make them look bad and very fake. The light is just too different. If anything I'd crop out more sky and add a slight blue gradient.

 

[dondulah]

That looks better, what tool did you use? And do you mind giving me a few steps. I seem to like Pixlr, but if there is something else I will buy it. I will be doing this a lot, so I want to be able to do it easily. But that look very good.

 

[astroNikon]

You picked a bad day in Michigan .. the sky is completely clouds right now.
You must be in my area - Rochester / Royal Oak
but then, I think most of the state is like this today :meh:


You can use the regular windows Photo Editor to lighten, add contrast and Gamma to improve it alot.
I fiddled with it briefly - 10 seconds and got it to about 60% of what Runnah had and I don't know much about post processing.

 

[KmH]

Hurry!

The industry standard is Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5. Both are available only until December 8, by subscription at $9.99 a month.
https://creative.adobe.com/plans/offer/photoshop+lightroom?promoid=KHQFP

 

[dondulah]

You picked a bad day in Michigan .. the sky is completely clouds right now.
You must be in my area - Rochester / Royal Oak
but then, I think most of the state is like this today :meh:


You can use the regular windows Photo Editor to lighten, add contrast and Gamma to improve it alot.
I fiddled with it briefly - 10 seconds and got it to about 60% of what Runnah had and I don't know much about post processing.

Yes I'm in Macomb. Anyone have any good sites or directions on how to do any of the above. I will pay the subscription no prob. I appreciate everyone's help. I will buy whatever software I need. I just don't know the steps to do what "Runnah" did. Thanks again!