Eskdalemuir Hills Scotland

canon400d

Recently I took a few shots of the Eskdalemuir hills of south west Scotland. It was a very sunny afternoon and the sky was blown out. This is my first successful attempt of replacing a sky so your comments on the landscape shot and replacement sky would be most appreciated.
Regards
Bob
Before

After

justME

Nice job.

canon400d

justME wrote:

Nice job.

Thanks for looking justMe.
Regards
Bob

ChristopherJAshdown

looks real - good one!

AndrewT

Nice work. The only thing I would try to improve are the mountains in the distance that transition into the sky (especially mid-frame). These mountains are getting the harsh light of the sun and are washed out but the sky right above has perfect detail.

canon400d

AndrewT wrote:

Nice work. The only thing I would try to improve are the mountains in the distance that transition into the sky (especially mid-frame). These mountains are getting the harsh light of the sun and are washed out but the sky right above has perfect detail.

Yes you are certainly right Andrew. How would I go about altering that small mountain range in mid-frame?
Thanks everyone for looking and commenting I really appreciate it.
Regards
Bob

dlplumer

Beautiful Bob. You are improving

AndrewT

If you shot RAW it should be too difficult. You would simply need to create a new layer in Photoshop from the RAW file exposing for the mid-frame mountains - ideally making them closer in line to the foreground mountains. This should make the transition to sky more natural. With some careful masking the mid-frame mountains should marry with the sky and blend into the existing foreground mountains.

If you would like some help let me know.


These images are from a few years ago, but I essentially had to do the same process:

Kilkenny, Ireland - 3 bracketed images stitched together



Muskoka, Ontario, Canada - 3 or 4 exposures of the same image stitched together.

canon400d

AndrewT wrote:

If you shot RAW it should be too difficult. You would simply need to create a new layer in Photoshop from the RAW file exposing for the mid-frame mountains - ideally making them closer in line to the foreground mountains. This should make the transition to sky more natural. With some careful masking the mid-frame mountains should marry with the sky and blend into the existing foreground mountains.

If you would like some help let me know.


These images are from a few years ago, but I essentially had to do the same process:

Kilkenny, Ireland - 3 bracketed images stitched together



Muskoka, Ontario, Canada - 3 or 4 exposures of the same image stitched together.

Thanks Dan it sure has been a long haul but slowly getting there.
Yes Andrew I do shoot raw I must admit I am a wee bit lost on your last instructions for the mid frame mountains. However, I see I have a few images that tend to suffer from the same problem. I would really appreciate a wee bit more detailed help to sort out these mid frames.
Regards
Bob

Awais Yaqub

Very nice work Bob !

canon400d

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Very nice work Bob !

Thanks Awais I thought I had got there but once Andrew pointed out the mid frames there is obviously more to do.
Regards
Bob

AndrewT

I gave it a quick try, without the benefit of the RAW to show you what I had in mind. Without your permission, I felt it was better PMing you the results first.

I created adjustments layers to play with the levels selectively on multiple layers (mind you my masks were made fairly quickly just to show you the idea ).

Below are the steps I went through. If you like my direction you are more than welcome to add these to the thread for the group.

Step 1 - Brought back the detail to the mountains in the distance (in the valley).


Step 2 - Adjusted the colour/contrast of the mountain on the right.


Step 3 - darkened the furthest mountain in shadow. With the RAW file I am sure you will be able to bring out cleaner detail than I was able to.


Step 4 - Finally filled in the clouds a bit where they meet the mountains in the valley.