Photoshop is a game changer

[Scott Whaley]

I've been playing around with Photoshop lately and find it to be a game changer. Over exposed skies, distracting objects are not a problem. Here is a photo my wife took in South Africa last January. She had to over expose the shot in order to get the bird to show up due to shading. #1 is her original photo. The next three have had the sky changed in Photo.

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[Scott Whaley]

Here is a photo of a Giraffe.

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[Thiophilos]

Ideally you would swap in a sky that you photographed yourself.

 

[smoke665]

Every now and then the stars align just right and you get that perfect shot, but the rest of the time it's nice to have PS skills. Especially now with Generative fill.

 

[webestang64]

Generative fill is nice, when it works. But as far as "Photoshop is a game changer" I said that back in the late 90's when P7 came out and gave us the healing brush.....LOL

But yeah....I really like #3 Giraffe. Great stuff.

 

[CherylL]

I like the 2nd giraffe. Sky replacement is tricky. Play with the blur and size. I've used it a few times.

 

[Scott Whaley]

I have only worked with PS for a couple of weeks, now. The learning curve is tough. One step at a time. The generative AI feature is amazing.

 

[Woolsocks]

If you need help with photoshop feel free to ask me. Replace sky command is cool. But it's not perfect. I used it a couple times myself then went back to manually replacing skies myself. Your bird is still under exposed and now you have a sky that is perfectly exposed, and you haven't done anything to your subject.

Dodge tool set at a low opacity level to brighten up the bird.
Sharpening brightens pixels, but to much sharpening breaks the image.
Camera raw. You can use camera raw to adjust the image and make corrections, even to jpg's.
various layer adjustments can change the brightness and contrast of your bird to match the background.
The most impressive tool in Photoshop are masks.

And there are plenty of tutorials on how to learn photoshop. Like lydia.

 

[Scott Whaley]

If you need help with photoshop feel free to ask me. Replace sky command is cool. But it's not perfect. I used it a couple times myself then went back to manually replacing skies myself. Your bird is still under exposed and now you have a sky that is perfectly exposed, and you haven't done anything to your subject.

Dodge tool set at a low opacity level to brighten up the bird.
Sharpening brightens pixels, but to much sharpening breaks the image.
Camera raw. You can use camera raw to adjust the image and make corrections, even to jpg's.
various layer adjustments can change the brightness and contrast of your bird to match the background.
The most impressive tool in Photoshop are masks.

And there are plenty of tutorials on how to learn photoshop. Like lydia.

Thanks for the tips. I'm just getting my feet wet in PS. One step at a time. There is so much to take in. LR was so much easier to learn.

 

[Woolsocks]

Thanks for the tips. I'm just getting my feet wet in PS. One step at a time. There is so much to take in. LR was so much easier to learn.

Edited with just the dodge and burn tools. Nothing else.

 

[smoke665]

I have only worked with PS for a couple of weeks, now. The learning curve is tough. One step at a time. The generative AI feature is amazing.

PS has multiple ways to do the same thing, understanding which one will work best on the image at hand is the hard part. It's also important to remember that PS is a raster editor, but you can work nondestructive (to a point) in your layer stack. As you go up in the number of layers in your stack you'll understand why this is important. Using a curves layers w/mask is a far better option for dodging and burning, because of it's ability to selectively work on highlights, midtones and shadows, with infinite control, and adjustment.

 

[JoolsW]

With that bird, The first sky replacement... I would have the sky 'level' at least 2 stops lighter, so it looks more natural and realistic. (IMHO).

 

[Scott Whaley]

With that bird, The first sky replacement... I would have the sky 'level' at least 2 stops lighter, so it looks more natural and realistic. (IMHO).

Thanks for the tip, but as I said before, I am just getting started with PS. The skies I used were AI generated in PS.

 

[JoolsW]

Well, If I were you I'd shoot a nice sky and use that. put it on a layer below the bird, and experiment with the colouring and tonal levels. AI is not your work is it. Layers is your friend !

 

[Woolsocks]

Thanks for the tip, but as I said before, I am just getting started with PS. The skies I used were AI generated in PS.

Actually you are wrong about that. They are not ai generated. They are in your installation folder. Like your brushes and gradients.