Chris96940
Forum Enthusiast
Took this on a semi cloudy day. Is there any way to make the sky look more blue? Or give this picture a little bit more "punch"?
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Image from Venice Beach
- Thread starter Chris96940
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Chris96940
Forum Enthusiast
another....
I opened it in photoshop, added a duplicate layer, did a curves adjustment in the blue channel, added an adjustment layer (curves) and did a slight s curve adjustment. I hesitate to post it here as I would on the retouching forum unless you want me to... and you don't have an email listed to email it to you. Anyway, it brightened it up and put more blue tone to the visible clear sky, and removed the yellowish cast in the clouds (smog?).
Robert Deutsch
Forum Pro
What you really need if you want to make skies look more blue is a polarizer. Photoshop can help, but it's not a replacement for doing it optically. BTW, if you're not into doing layers/masks, you can still get the photo to have more punch by adjusting levels and increasing blue saturation. I tried it on your photo and it helped quite a bit, but the sky was still not that deep blue that it can be with use of a polarizer. But then, sometimes even with the polarizer it's not that blue. That's nature for you!
Bob
Bob
Chris96940
Forum Enthusiast
I will also re-post this in the retouching forum. Thanks.
twagenknecht
Leading Member
I have seen this behavior, especially here in SoCal. I use my CP only when I can get a shot where the sun is behind me, or to the side by more than 90 degrees. I have also found that in the summer here, the lighting is often so harsh, and the sky ether cloudy, hazy, or smog filled, that even with a UV/Haze filter or CP, the shots are really hard to get right. I find the best times here are either early morning, or later in the afternoon, towards evening. Twilight is the golden time...
--
It is all about the moment…
once passed…never retrieved…
once captured…never forgotten.
This IS the essence of photography
Chris,
I like this image. Colorful and fun. I noticed that nobody mentioned the dynamic range of your original image. You probably already know that a simple levels or curves adjustment will add nice "pop" to most digital images.
If you look at both ends of the histogram on your image you will see that it is lacking any true highlight or black information. While there are many ways to accomplish this adjustment, I used the Threshold Layer technique as outlined in Scott Kelby's book for selecting highlight and shadow points. I then did a curve adjustment layer to click on the shadow/highlight points.
I hope you don't mind my posting the result of my simple curve adjustment retouch. Please let me know if you want me to remove it.
Hope this is helpful.
-- Rob
I like this image. Colorful and fun. I noticed that nobody mentioned the dynamic range of your original image. You probably already know that a simple levels or curves adjustment will add nice "pop" to most digital images.
If you look at both ends of the histogram on your image you will see that it is lacking any true highlight or black information. While there are many ways to accomplish this adjustment, I used the Threshold Layer technique as outlined in Scott Kelby's book for selecting highlight and shadow points. I then did a curve adjustment layer to click on the shadow/highlight points.
I hope you don't mind my posting the result of my simple curve adjustment retouch. Please let me know if you want me to remove it.
Hope this is helpful.
-- Rob
Arglebargle
Leading Member
If you use levels and drag the gamma (middle slider) to darken the image quite a bit, then use shadows highlights to restore shadow detail, then a S curve in Curves and then meet the mountains in levels, then unsharp mask at 13/250/0 you can make this shot look like a scene from Fantasia if you want it that intense.
You could make it more vivid, etc. if you wanted, but I just tried to take out the smog look and make the blue a truer blue. There are so many ways to achieve similar things in Photoshop, I will go over to the retouch forum and see what they come up with later.
Three quick steps in Photoshop got me to this:
1st adjusment layer: Color Balance
-10 on red (towards cyan),
0 on the magenta green slider and
+15 on blue,
'tone balance' set to 'midtone' and 'preserve luminosity' checked.
2nd adjustment layer: Hue/Saturation
+25 on saturation
3rd adjustment layer: Brightness/Contrast
+10 on contrast
--
Olaf
'Error is a portal to new discovery'
1st adjusment layer: Color Balance
-10 on red (towards cyan),
0 on the magenta green slider and
+15 on blue,
'tone balance' set to 'midtone' and 'preserve luminosity' checked.
2nd adjustment layer: Hue/Saturation
+25 on saturation
3rd adjustment layer: Brightness/Contrast
+10 on contrast
--
Olaf
'Error is a portal to new discovery'
A few passes of Unsharp Mask will help make it pop even more:
1st pass: (increase local contrast)
Amount: 5%
Radius: 30px
Threshold: 0 levels
2nd pass: (sharpen)
Amount: 200%
Radius: 0.2 px
Threshold: 2 levels
3rd pass: (optional extra sharpen, if you'd like)
same settings as in 2nd pass
Result? Here (third pass skipped):
--
Olaf
'Error is a portal to new discovery'
1st pass: (increase local contrast)
Amount: 5%
Radius: 30px
Threshold: 0 levels
2nd pass: (sharpen)
Amount: 200%
Radius: 0.2 px
Threshold: 2 levels
3rd pass: (optional extra sharpen, if you'd like)
same settings as in 2nd pass
Result? Here (third pass skipped):
--
Olaf
'Error is a portal to new discovery'
Steve Balcombe
Forum Pro
Here's one way to do it:
Add an Adjustment Layer (doesn't matter which, I used Curves), change Blend Mode to multiply, set opacity to 50%. The layer doesn't actually perform an adjustment, it simply multiplies the background layer by itself.
Select the sky - I did this with a rough marquee selection followed by Select Color Range. Copy the background layer then Paste Into. The new layer should be between the two existing layers.
Make sure the new layer is selected (NOT the layer mask) and hit Ctrl+T (Transform). Stretch the sky so that the good, blue part fills the whole area visible through the layer mask.
Above this layer, create a Brightness/Contrast layer then click Layer ~ Create Clipping Mask so that it only affects the layer directly below (i.e. the new sky). Increase the contrast to taste, I went for +20.
Add an Adjustment Layer (doesn't matter which, I used Curves), change Blend Mode to multiply, set opacity to 50%. The layer doesn't actually perform an adjustment, it simply multiplies the background layer by itself.
Select the sky - I did this with a rough marquee selection followed by Select Color Range. Copy the background layer then Paste Into. The new layer should be between the two existing layers.
Make sure the new layer is selected (NOT the layer mask) and hit Ctrl+T (Transform). Stretch the sky so that the good, blue part fills the whole area visible through the layer mask.
Above this layer, create a Brightness/Contrast layer then click Layer ~ Create Clipping Mask so that it only affects the layer directly below (i.e. the new sky). Increase the contrast to taste, I went for +20.
Took this on a semi cloudy day. Is there any way to make the sky
look more blue? Or give this picture a little bit more "punch"?
admactanium
Well-known member
funny. i just took a shot of that same thing a couple weeks ago. i live about 2 blocks from there.
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