How to change the Sky of a Photo
- Easy Peasy PIXEL team
- Apr 9, 2019
- 2 min read
Hello! I'm so happy you are interested in our products.
Sometimes it's very hard to photograph our subjects with a perfect sky, that's why we offer you different DIGITAL BACKGROUNDS and SKY Overlays so you can edit your photos like a pro! and here we'll tell you how:
So first of all, you're going to select your subject, cut them out of their boring background, and drop them into your prettier digital background. Isolating your subject is the most tedious part and requires some time and patience, but if you do a good job, the results will be worth it!
MAKING SELECTIONS IN PHOTOSHOP IS KIND OF LIKE A CUT PAPER PROJECT - YOU CUT OUT IMAGES AND PASTE THEM ALL TOGETHER TO MAKE A NEW ONE! THE DIFFERENCE WITH PHOTOSHOP IS THAT EACH TIME YOU CUT OUT AN IMAGE, YOU CAN GET A MUCH MORE PRECISE SELECTION BECAUSE OF THE TOOLS THAT ADOBE OFFERS.
For cutting out a person, most of the picture will be easy to cut out because the edges are relatively flat. Hair, however, can be tricky, and there are some tips here so that you may easily define hair to capture as much detail as possible.
A good technique is to try using the quick selection tool initially, and then use the other tools to refine for the more difficult areas. Your initial selection should include everything you want to select minus as much background as possible; you'll be able to cut out extra areas later.
In older versions of Photoshop, once you've used the quick selection tool an option to "Refine Edge" will pop up on the top part of the screen. Click on it (keep your "Adjust Edge" selections the same) and refine your difficult edges by clicking the +paint brush. Brushing over edges where flyaway hairs are; it should appear as if you are isolating the hairs. Once you're satisfied with the selection, scroll down to the checkbox that says "Decontaminate colors" and click it. Output to a new layer with a layer mask.
For Creative Cloud CC users, the process is similar, but you'll have to go into Select and Mask. Select the brush that looks like it has a flame around it, make sure it's on the +, and paint around individual hairs to isolate them. Once you're satisfied with your selection, check on the decontaminate colors box, and output to a new layer with a layer mask.
Now, you can clean up you selection manually where Photoshop wasn't able to detect color.
I recommend you place a white background underneath your selection to make any extra bits stand out more. Paint with a soft, black brushon your layer mask to hide parts of the selection, and paint white to add any areas back on.
Once you've done this, you should have a mostly clean edge selection! That was time consuming, but thankfully the rest is very easy! Now all you have to do is drop the background image, in this example it'll be a night sky underneath your selection.
And that's it! what a difference!!! I especially love how even up close, the details remain. You can add any kind of background, these are the results and a new example.
Comments