Replace a Washed Out Sky Using Layers in PhotoDirector

There are a number of ways to replace boring overcast skies. Whichever method you use, keep in mind that choosing the right sky to composite into your image is the key to making your final photo realistic. Watch for the colors and atmosphere, don't match overcast shots with sunny bright skies, and if the direction of the light is inconsistent, the composite will look odd.

In this tutorial, we have chosen an image of the Eiffel Tower taken against an overcast sky. The original color of this image is warm, which makes it ideal to have low contrast sunset sky behind it. These are the 2 images we will blend together:

First import the Eiffel Tower image and go to the Layers Module in PhotoDirector. The Eiffel Tower image is the background image.

Use the Add New Layer icon to add the image of the sky.

Select the image you want to add. The image will be on top of the background image.

Next, while the image of the sky is selected, change the Blend Mode to Multiply.

The blended image will make the darker areas of the background image visible. You will notice some parts of the sky image is exposed (the black foreground at the bottom). We will deal with that later.

The next couple of steps are to adjust the sky. We want to have the warm sunset colors behind the Eiffel tower, so we flip the image using the Flip Tool.

Next, use the Move tool to position the image of the sky, it may take several trials until you get a perfect placement. Zooming out will make it easier to move and drag the corners of the image.

Now, there are a couple of problems to fix. The image of the sky is bleeding into the bridge and the lower part of the Eiffel Tower. Also, the dark foreground of the image of the sky is visible.

These can be easily fixed with the Eraser Tool. Make sure the top layer is selected and use a large sized brush with medium opacity to brush out the areas mentioned above.

When fixing the lower part of the Eiffel Tower, reduce the size of the brush and lower the opacity. You may need to apply several brushes until you get it right. If you overdo it, you can always click on the back button to undo.

Next, we would like to make the sunset sky warmer and that can be done by clicking on the adjustment icon. The adjustment panel will be displayed. The only changes we made were changing the saturation of the colors orange and yellow.

And the final image:

When the adjustments are made, click on the Save button to save a working file in PHI format. This allows you to re-edit the images in the Layers Module.

Or select the Adjustment Module and PhotoDirector will save a virtual copy in the library.

1. Original Image
2. A Virtual copy of the edited image in JPG.
3. A PHI working file that let's you to continue refining the image.

If you are new to PhotoDirector, learn more and download a 30-day free trial here.

  

Introduction to PhotoDirector's Blending Modes

The Blend modes in PhotoDirector offer added power to Layers. By taking colors of one image and blending it to another image layer, Blend Modes lets you create new effects. There are 14 different types of blend modes, each contains an algorithm to blend color pixels of the base image and the blending image, resulting in different look and feel.

By default, the blend mode is set to normal, meaning simply one layer is on top of another, by clicking on the drop-down menu, you will find the blend modes grouped into 6 categories.

To take the blending modes even further, you can adjust opacity values to decide how strong you want the look to be. Adjusting the Opacity slider allows you to blend the active layer (making it translucent) with the base layer, which in turn allow the base layer to see through.

Any changes made using blend modes are non-destructive, you can always readjust your blend mode settings without damaging the pixels in your original image.

In the following, we will display the effect of each blending mode using a photo and applying 2 different textured images to help you understand the effect of each blend mode.

NOTE: The 2 texture images are from "D Sharon Pruitt"  from Pink Sherbet Photography (https://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/ )

Original Background Image:

Original Blend  images
NORMAL	No blend mode applied
Normal
DARKENING	These blend modes darkens the image. Any color in the base layer that is darker then the blend mode will be displayed.
Darken
Multiply
Linear Burn
LIGHTENING	These blend modes lightens the image. Any color in the base layer that is lighter then the blend mode will be displayed.
Lighten
Screen
Linear Dodge
CONTRAST	These blend modes both darken and lighten aspects of the image, boosting the contrast.
Overlay
Linear Light
COMPARATIVE	These blend modes compare the two layers and look for pixels that are identical in both layers.
Difference
Exclusion
COMPOSITE	These blend modes will effect either the color or luminosity of the image.
Hue
Saturation
Lightness

Each effect doesn't just stops here. Any blending mode applied to a background image can be further adjusted with the opacity slider, gradient and color tools. More tutorials to come on how to use Layers and Blend modes for creative effects.



If you are new to PhotoDirector, learn more and download a 30-day free trial here.

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