Sky Cut Out Assistance

[ScouserClete]

So I have some photos that I've replaced the sky by using "Blend If" and taking out the blues or grays. Works great most of the time until the background turns to bokeh. I get fringing and its difficult to get it to blend well and look natural. I had it figured out at one point by waving a brush over all the spots but i cant for the life of me remember what I did. It could very well be that the "sky bokeh" in the trees was smaller in the last picture, rendering it easier to manage. But I know there has to be a better way to replace that sky. I know I probably didnt give a lot of specific info but any help would be much appreciated.

1st image A - Trouble edit
1st image B - original bg
2nd image A- final edit (i forgot wtf i did. lol)
2nd image B - original bg

 

[adamhiram]

It sounds like you might be overcomplicating things a bit here. Unless you are trying to do a full sky replacement, including all cloud and gradient detail, you really only need to address the places where the highlights are poking through.

Here is a quick example with the original images you provided:

• Create new layer
• Paint over sky highlights with replacement color - in this case, cb6b55 (sampled from your first image), using a soft brush (I used 50px, 25% hardness)
• Change the layer to Overlay, and adjust the opacity until it looks somewhat natural - in this case I turned it down to about 60%
• For a more dramatic effect, try Multiply as the blend mode

Is this more of what you were going for?

 

[ScouserClete]

Yea I was trying to keep it consistent with a few others that I had done a full sky replacement on. That’s why I couldn’t use anything else. I did figure it out after some trial and error. I ended up turning down the stamp opacity and stamping some of the darker portions of the trees on the Blend-If layer. It darkened the fringing while not interfering with leaves around it. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[waday]

Maybe I’m missing something, but why not just remove the sky? It seems kind of distracting. I did a quick phone edit to see the difference....

 

[ScouserClete]

Maybe I’m missing something, but why not just remove the sky? It seems kind of distracting. I did a quick phone edit to see the difference....
View attachment 179171
View attachment 179170

Totally agree. My wife just wanted it to stay. Otherwise I totally would have taken it out. Hahaha.


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