Advice on Outdoor Clipping?

AngryRed

Hey guys Happy New Year! I'm looking for some advice on handling clipping when taking outdoor portraits. I have what I think is a decent portrait of my daughter but I'm looking for some ideas on dealing with the clipping from the sky in the upper right corner.



So far my only idea has been to select the sky and attempt a gradient color conversion of the area with some blurring of the line where the rocks meet the sky, but it looks fake to me. Any other ideas? It seems so distracting to me in its normal state.

Trevlan

I have the solution for you!!! Expose for the sky and fill with a strobe!

Swartzy

For this particular shot..you could add a gradient. Use your histogram as your source of info rather than the LCD.

Azurite

Don't you just hate when you get a nice shot that needs a fix? I do too! Since it's too late to go back and expose for the sky and add a strobe (other advice you got), what about layering with a photo of a sky?

Or I've had images with a tiny amount of blue sky and could select the sky, color adjust to add more blue and then saturate the blue..... that's all I got....

zoomer

The best way is to pay attention to the background before you take the picture...the bigger problem is the rock line going through the middle of her head.
For the picture you posted..just leave the background how it is.
Blown backgrounds are actually the new style these days..it looks fine as is.

Nikolai

I agree, sky is ok as it is, no need to add the blue. But is you are set on adding a gradient, don't forget to use dithering (or add noise), otherwise you'll end up with all sorts of banding problems at different resolutions...

AngryRed

Thanks all.