Editing Problem! (Involves HDR)

[dcmoody23]

Okay so I created the HDR image I wanted, but the sky (less than 1/10th of the image) had some halos and lost lots of color (I don't really know why, because there was actually clouds and I actually did take some darker exposers to correctly expose the sky). Anyways, I save that HDR image, but the sky didn't look right at all so I cleared all of the weird pink color it had with a brush on gimp and so now it's just a white color with a blackish cloud (not important).

I was simply wondering if there would be a way to get the sky fixed. I have the exposure (In raw) with a darker sky.. It's not too much better, but it's a shade of gray and the white definitely ruins this picture. Any ideas?

Here's a small, low res example of what I'm taking about here --

Thanks for any help.

Ooh and in case anyone was wondering, I am going to have a 'normal' shot of this.. I mean it's a nature scene.. come on! gotta have the natural stuff.

 

[Sachphotography]

I think I say this out of love......nothing can fix that image.

What did you do to that thing?

 

[dcmoody23]

Hahah. It's all good.. It looks a lot better the bigger it is. As a small image it looks awful because it's like a big jumble of garbage, but I wasn't looking for CC here.. I wouldn't normally post something that would knowingly not be accepted, but I'm looking for help to get the sky fixed.. & I'm a 17 year old kid. Playing around with the sliders and coming up with some completely outrageous look is cool! . But my monitor is awful, so I'm sure prints wouldn't look nearly as good as I'm envisioning

 

[AverageJoe]

I'm not sure I would focus so much on the sky in the shot, it's such a minimal element of the photo compared to everything else, and if you think about it, the algorithms in the HDR software are probably focusing on the colors/shadows/range of the foliage since the sky accounts for such a small portion of the image.

Is this Details Enhanced? What does it look like with the Tone Compressor?

 

[oldmacman]

To answer the question, yes the sky can be fixed. Here is one method:
- do a colour range select to get the grey of the sky.
- use other masking tools to add in some of the bits that may have been missed
- mask and copy a "good" sky
- come back to this image
- use "paste into" to drop your sky into the selected area.

I can post an example of how this might look with your pic, if you would like.

 

[dcmoody23]

Thank for the responses! Oldmacman that sounds kind of simple, but for me it may be difficult. I'll let you know how it goes.. If not I'll load a higher res picture and I would love your help. My photos are okay to edit.

 

[dcmoody23]

I'm not sure I would focus so much on the sky in the shot, it's such a minimal element of the photo compared to everything else, and if you think about it, the algorithms in the HDR software are probably focusing on the colors/shadows/range of the foliage since the sky accounts for such a small portion of the image.

Is this Details Enhanced? What does it look like with the Tone Compressor?

I agree, but I feel like the white takes the focus of the image, and I want it to be water/rocks to be the main focus.

I don't have time now, but I'll load a regular, tone mapped image later for you to see.

 

[The Eastern Chi]

looks like a lord of the rings illustration.

 

[dcmoody23]

GAH! Even on the tone mapped images the sky is blown -- I'll have to play around with the raw images a little bit..

There is three of the four images combined to make this one. It's a little dark - I just put it together quick to show an example..

 

[o hey tyler]

Moody-

We should shoot together some time. Maybe we can show each other some good spots in the state? Where did you take this photo?