Give your scene a brand-new sky
Thanks to AI, Photoshop CC 2021 can replace skies in seconds with just a couple of clicks.
Last October Adobe released the latest version of Photoshop. One of Photoshop CC 2021’s headline features is the new Sky Replacement Tool, which uses machine learning to automatically recognise the sky in your outdoor photos, isolate it and drop in another sky of your choice. You can now replace a dull sky with a few clicks.
Of course, there’s a whole debate around whether the act of sky replacement tarnishes landscape photography, diminishing the joy of capturing a real-life scene. But leaving that aside, this new tool is astonishingly good at what it does. It’s able to isolate even difficult areas of sky, like the gaps between the pier in our example, or other intricate details like tree branches and buildings.
This release also introduces Neural Filters, which – among other things – automatically colourise old photos and generate smiles in your portraits. Along with Sky Replacement, these features represent an exciting new era of AI-powered Photoshop tools.
JAMES PATERSON
1 EDGE ADJUSTMENT AND SKY BRUSH The automatic sky selection Photoshop makes is usually very good, but it may not be perfect every time. Use these sliders to fine-tune the transition between land and sky. Shift Edge pushes the edge up or down, and Fade Edge makes the edge harder or more feathered. You can also use the Sky Brush in the toolbar to reveal more sky; hold Alt and paint to remove sky.
2 CHOOSE A SKY Open a scene, then go to Edit > Sky Replacement to begin. (If you just want to select the sky without replacing it, choose Select > Sky). Photoshop automatically isolates the sky then replaces it with another. Choose a new sky from the dropdown. They’re divided into categories like Blue Skies, Spectacular and Sunsets. You can drag skies between folders to organise them.
3
USE YOUR OWN As well as using skies provided by Adobe, you can also load in your own images. It’s probably a good idea to build up your own library of skies, as the Adobe choices will undoubtedly be used widely. Click the cog icon here to load your own images. Photoshop will locate the area of sky from any image you choose, so the image needn’t be just sky, and there’s no need to crop it beforehand.
4 SCALE AND MOVE Drag the sky to change the position. With larger-resolution images, you’ll find that Adobe’s skies will only just fit, so if you want to move the position, you’ll need to increase Scale first so that it’s larger in the frame. Adjusting Scale can also be helpful for matching the perspective of the sky with the land below. If you like, you can also flip the sky, which can be useful for matching the direction of light with the scene below.
5
FOREGROUND ADJUSTMENTS When you choose a new sky, the tone and colour of the land automatically adjusts to match it. If you scale or move the sky around to view a different part, the foreground colours will change too. The Lighting and Color Adjustment sliders determine the strength of the change in brightness and colour. Lighting Mode lets you make the blend darker (with Multiply) or lighter (with Screen).
6
SKY ADJUSTMENTS It’s worth spending time on these settings to fine-tune the look of the sky and land, so that the colours and lighting look natural. You can alter the brightness of the sky or make the colours warmer or cooler with the sliders here (when you alter these settings you’ll notice the tones in the land change too). If you choose to output as New Layers, you can tweak the look later by altering the resulting Brightness/Contrast and Color Balance layers.