difficulty replacing a dull sky

<p>I am having trouble replacing a dull sky. I have looked at two tutorials , one using the magic wand and another using layers with blend af but I still have trouble with filligree type trees with ghostiing. anyone have a sure fire technique for replacing a dull sky?</p>

<p>A sure fire way? No. It depends on what sky is there and what you are trying to replace it with. It helps to improve or use different more effective masking techniques around those those pesky trees. Have you tried selecting by Color Range? which is yet another way of selecting something precisely.</p>

<p>Personally I shoot skies with clouds almost every day that I go out to capture landscapes. By doing this, you get a collection of clouds, which have similar lighting the landscapes may have. Its just that the clouds are not always where you want them. :) After years of doing this, have quite a large collection, so can usually find something that will do what I want.<br>

Then, load both images, capture all the sky that I want to replace with the Magic Wand, including the spaces which are within the opening of the trees. <br>

Then, go to the other image, make sure it is set to the same size or larger than the pixel dimensions of the one we are working with. Click on Healing Brush, set it quite large. Change it to REPLACE, start it in one upper corner, switch to the other image that was captured with the magic want. Put the Healing brush over the same corner and sweep it across the image until the entire sky is filled.... <br>

Then, still in the Magic Wand Capture, adjust sky color, contrast, etc to look like I wish.<br>

Then, choose the Blur Brush, with either darken or lighten whichever is appropriate. ZOOM IN Set it to 15-35% and blur the edges until they are about the same color as the original. Either setting it over the sky, and darkening the sky to make it balance right with the trees. OR if the sky is darker than necessary lighten it to blend. <br>

Even in images which have ghosting where you do not want to change the sky, using the blur you can eliminate the ghosting. It takes a bit of practice to "get it right" but practice on some files which do not matter first. </p>

<p>awesome response robert very innovative and the eureka light came on when I read it and cannot wait to try it and perfect it . of all the techniques I researched this is the one that is most promising for me thankks for taking the time to respond</p>

<p>One reason that I like this is sometimes the change is so slight you can set the brush at 6-8 and it works just right. I play with it, undoing when necessary, until I find what works best... Many times when replacing the sky, it leaves a very sharp edge on the horizon especially with mountains, like in Yosemite Valley, using blur you can make it look as it should.</p>

<p>Have just tried it: cool trick -- thanks!<br>

(still, it's the selection / masking of problem areas that's the hardest...)</p>

<p>You are welcome, enjoy...</p>

<p>Have just had a chance to apply your technique, Robert, although, while sky was definitely involved, I used it no so much to replace it as to get rid of unsightly fringing artifacts (from tone blending) in the foliage against the sky -- here's <a href="../photo/11912770&size=lg"><strong>the result</strong></a>, which I'm quite pleased with (I was really struggling to clean it up! ...have actually given up on it at one stage, but then remembered this handy trick and it did the magic ;)</p>