Photoshop's 2021 Sky Replacement Feature

[ericgtr12]

As a rule, I will only work with lighting features to balance light in my photos, never (ever) photoshopping to add or remove features unless it's just to experiment. That said, this new "Sky Replacement" feature in the latest version of Photoshop is scary good and easy to use. Here's an example of before and after of a red tailed hawk that I took last year.

Original


With the sky replacement feature


The difference is compelling and this took literally no work in tweaking, you just click the button and it automatically finds the sky and replaces it. Very smart and cool feature that I will never use as a photographer but as a leap in technology is really impressive.

 

[mollyc]

i haven't updated my PS yet. Does PS have their own skies, or do you use your own? Or either way?

 

[ericgtr12]

i haven't updated my PS yet. Does PS have their own skies, or do you use your own? Or either way?

They have a bunch that you can choose from and tweak. It's found under Edit > Sky Replacement.

 

[tizeye]

While Photoshop's is good, if you have Luminar 4 installed (the original super easy sky replacement), it won't launch after the newest version of Photoshop is pushed out in Windows (haven't tried on Mac). There are some instructions online on how to re-establish Luminar 4. Suggestion, bring the instructions up on a separate computer/phone/ipad to retain the instructions during the process. After signing on as administrator, have to re-boot a couple of times.

While I have used the Photoshop version, I am impressed, but I haven't played with it enough. I did not, like Luminar, that it does alter the overall color slighty with slight color masking. It is very subtle and most times the color shift is inconsequential. However, I found in Real Estate...obviously requiring a great sky...that borgering known whites, like eaves or windows turn a slight blue shade. Using Luminar I copied the background layer and applied the sky to on layer. Reactivated the background layer and painted the whites along the trim and windows back in, then flattened layers. Don't know if able to use the layer approach with skys in Photoshop.

 

[MCAsan]

Also the Sky mask tool can be used to create a mask that will let you put edits only on the sky or the foreground. So the masking tool does not only have to be used to replace a sky.