Swap the sky for dramatic effects

Use the Sky Replacement filter to quickly transform your landscapes, says Claire Gillo

Photoshop has many wonderful tools and filters. In October 2020, the release of Photoshop CC 2021 introduced the Sky Replacement Tool. This easy-to-use command takes your image and works out where the sky meets the land or sea, then fills it with another sky from another selected image. I’ve tried it on a range of images, including photos with trees, and it has been accurate pretty much every time.

To access the Sky Replacement Tool in Photoshop CC 2021 or 2022, go to Edit > Sky Replacement. You can either pick a sky from the Adobe Collection, or you can import your own skies from your images. To import your images when the Sky Replacement Tool is open, click on the sky picture icon and a pop-up box will appear. On the right-hand side click the settings icon and go to Import Skies > From Images.

In August 2021 Adobe released more sky images for this tool. To access these go to creativecloud.adobe.com/discover/article/ free-adobe-photoshop-sky-presets. Once downloaded, open the Sky Replacement Tool again, click the settings icon and go to Import Skies > From Sky Presets. Click on the new image thumbnails to import.