Fxing uneven sky polarization in PS

Anyone have a suggestion for how to fix uneven skys due to using a

polarizing filter on a super wide angle lens.

 

A sample is posted below. The polarization is most sever at 90 degrees to the

sun which was setting to the right--hence the big dark spot in the sky. I have

tried unsuccessfully to correct for this in PS.<div></div>

Duplicated the layer, did a little cloning retouch and then reduced

the transparency to 50% or so. Quick fix. Not a total fix.<div></div>

Well that's pretty darn good. A lot better than I did. I've played around a bit

and tried to copy this. I suspect that (in time) I can duplicate it but... it's going

to be hard to avoid a blotchy sky. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Here is my try. I selected the sky and put on seperate layer and used Gradient Foreground to Transparent then modified the color of the gradient from the strongest blue to the lightest blue and pulled from top to bottom in the selected area untill I was satisfied. Sky was easy to select because of the straight horizon, I just the rectangular marquee. Then I used healing brush on white dot that didn't clean up.<div></div>

Donald, that is a nice job you did. I didn't followup with a feather

or smoothing which would have helped the blotchiness. This

would have been a real bear if there had been some trees or

such on the horizon.

 

Now here's a challenge for you. See if you can put back the

moon (the white dot you removed).

This is showing more promise. But I am not sure I understand wht you did.</

p>

"I selected the sky and put on seperate layer" Got that</p>

"and used Gradient Foreground to Transparent " As a new layer? Do you

mean to change the "Layer Style" to "Gradient Overlay"</p>

"then modified the color of the gradient from the strongest blue to the lightest

blue" -- Got that.</p>

"and pulled from top to bottom in the selected area untill I was satisfied." Not

sure what tool you are using.</p>

"Sky was easy to select because of the straight horizon, I just the rectangular

marquee." -- You bet.</p>

"Then I used healing brush on white dot that didn't clean up." -- A "well

healed" moon. Thank you.</p>

Theres no moon like a well heald moon I always say. LOL I should have looked closer to see it was a moon! Ok, Moon is back in now.

 

As far as the steps I took.

 

1. Copy background. You don't need to do this it is just something I do in case I really mess up and want to start over.

 

2. Selected sky with Rectangular Marquee, You could also use magic wand if you have a lot of trees. Then I did Control J to past selection as new layer Mode is Normal.

 

3. Went to sky layer and Control Click on new layer to reactivate selection.

 

4. Under Select went to Feather and feathered by 2 pixels to smooth the transition.

 

5. On tool bar choose Gradient and then under gradient I chose Linear Gradient then clicked in box that shows gradient, choose Foreground to Transparent.

 

6. Then I chose colors from the sky and went from darkest blue to lights blue and put on bottom of gradient slider, I moved the sliders apart to reduce the banding and I only chose 3 levels. Clicked OK then.

 

7. On selection I pulled from top to bottom to get nice hue change.

 

8. Applied Layer Mask to bring moon back. Sorry, I thought that was a speck of dust or something. :-)

 

I used 3 layers, Background, Background copy and Sky layer. I didn't use a Gradient Layer on this one because I wanted to see where I was putting the blue so I just did it on the sky layer. The Gradient tool is behind the paint bucket.

 

I have a screen shot of the gradient slider in case anyone is wondering what I was talking about. I think it took me a month to figure out how to use it. I kept changing the color of the top instead of the bottom.

 

This was a fun excersize. I always learn things I didn't know I knew. Thanks

 

Don<div></div>

The Gradient selector<div></div>

Don this is great! Thanks for the detailed explanation. Seems to be working

well. Now if you want a challenge... How can you can make the dark spot

lighter --to match the rest of the sky, instead of making the light parts darker?

Basicly the same why, it just depends on the shades of blue you want. You can also add some other color as well.

 

Don<div></div>

Here is one with a little more color<div></div>

Ooops, here it is again. It all depends on the colors you pick on the bottom row.<div></div>

Bravo!

Heres my solution.

 

1. Copy original image layer, invert, layer opacity 50%, layer type screen, use a layer mask to exclude the landscape.

2. Copy original layer again, place above and use as a colour layer, desaturate slightly. Use broad brush strokes to get similar blue to surrounding sky & remove dark splotch.

3. Levels adjustment layer to reach original look.

 

Cheers.

Jay