How do I add more sky in PSE 11 and other help...

[NancyMoranG]

I know, I know, I cut the top off!!
Ran to the door at work with my phone and got this. Now I need to add a strip of sky at top with PSE 11. How do I do that? I have some experience but not a lot...
Other thought..is bridge too bright and how would I fix that?
This will be enlarged to poster size, but don't know about pixel size when enlarging...
thanks.
I know I have been absent a lot this year, but I am back

 

[astroNikon]

Hey, I have PSE11 and have done what you're asking .. but I'll have to go check and see how to do it again.

btw, welcome back (really all I wanted to say but I'll try to help too).

Edit: I actually have PSE12 but it should close.

 

[astroNikon]

My Notes as I go through the steps:

1 - Image, Resize, Canvas Size, Change the height (make sure Relative is NOT checked).
You should then have a strip at the top of no photo. But the canvas is increased in size.

2 -Now there's a couple options here to duplicate the sky
(a) Color Picker tool
- click on dropper.
- click on part of the sky to grab the color
- click on the paint bucket tool
- click on the new blank strip at the top and viola. new sky

Although my sky isn't a good color match as it's lighter from left to right of the image vs. the strip that was just filled in.

BETTER OPTION
(b) Click the Smudge Tool
- then at bottom click the Blur Tool
then go to top of pic, and push up the top of the sky up into the empty space. This will take a bit, but it will color match all the way across as you're bringing the same sky colors up to the blank spot.

I'm sure an expert will come along and have the best solution, but that seems to work well for me.

 

[astroNikon]

here's as I was working on it, you can see the middle black strip

this is really sloppy but you can see how I push the sky color UP