How to fix in photoshop?

Anyone got any idea how to create a flat sky??

Not sure how the streaks came about in the processing (maybe due to not using a proper stop)

However, they are here now and i would like to correct!

 

'Magic wand' selection tool with a tolerance set to go across the streak boundaries. Or multiple auto selections with the shift key held down.

 

However, once you have the entire sky selected, a simple 'bucket' flood fill won't recreate the grain texture of the film. So Add Noise might be the answer, or laboriously cloning a selected area across the whole sky.

Sometimes you just have to declare a photo is unfixable and move on to the next one. That may be the case here. Even if you could eliminate the streaks you would still need hours of cloning to get rid of all the dust spots or whatever they are.

You might be able to fix thee streaking with an FFT. There's a good free plug-in for that, but working with FFTs is a bit of a learning curve. OTOH, they can work miracles with patterns. Speck removal or salt and pepper removals will take care of some of the spots but the rest you'll have to clone out. IMO, not too difficult.

I downloaded the photo and tried making the sky white and then adding grain but I really think its too far gone. Examples to demonstrate some of the above suggestions would be interesting to see.

As Rodeo_joe said: Magic wand the sky area (50), Fill 100%, Add noise 22%. I have reduced the image size to 1000 pixels. Edited January 23, 2020 by JeffOwen

I like [uSER=2403817]@rodeo_joe|1[/uSER] ánd @JeffOwen's method. It's straightforward. The only downside is that (if you're not careful), you'll lose the details of the pylons on the skyline. Maybe they're important, probably not.I'm not q

Pffff!! I'd just crafted a step-by-step alternative (but more time-consuming) method when PN timed out on me. In short: I really like [uSER=2403817]@rodeo_joe|1[/uSER]'s and @JeffOwen's method. It's relatively quick and straightforward and it produces good results. The only two 'downsides' that I can imagine are that::

- you might lose some details on the skyline (pylons, wires) that just might be - but probably aren't - important

- you get a 'grey' (50% or sampled) value for the sky that might not be as representative as you'd like

 

So, being a Photoshop nitpicker, I played around with the photo and I came up with an alternative and more time-consuming method. The results aren't very different from those of [uSER=2403817]@rodeo_joe|1[/uSER] or @JeffOwen. The only difference is my 'alternative' method perhaps retains more skyline details, has sky values closer to the original and generally provides more scope for 'tweaking'. If you want a quick and good fix, just follow up on [uSER=2403817]@rodeo_joe|1[/uSER] AND @JeffOwen tips.

 

If you're interested in producing similar results with (masked) filters, jus let me know and I'll explain it (again!).This is what I came up with. It doesn't look very different to the versions already posted.

 

Mike

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by mikemorrell

'Magic wand' selection tool with a tolerance set to go across the streak boundaries. Or multiple auto selections with the shift key held down.

 

However, once you have the entire sky selected, a simple 'bucket' flood fill won't recreate the grain texture of the film. So Add Noise might be the answer, or laboriously cloning a selected area across the whole sky.

 

Following along with Rodeo's sugestion of using the "magic wand" to select the sky, then selecting the inverse in Photoshop, and then pasting the selection on a more interesting sky than the original blank one. you could apply grain structure to the sky layer before flattening the layers if necessary.

 

Of course, this isn't the "flat sky" that the OP wanted, so you could go out and photograph a new flat sky to apply the method to.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Glenn McCreery

HI alexcarter

Lots of good approaches already posted.

My approach is:

1) extract the high frequency component with high pass filter

2) Box blur the original copy

3) reapply amplifed high frequency component with soft filter blend

4) Mask this version just to the sky

5) Content Aware fill of the boundaries (my try could be done better)

6) remove dust/hair scratches

 

Hope this helps some

 

I don't use Photoshop so can't run this but the results are pretty good- Photoshop pattern remover!

I don't use Photoshop so can't run this but the results are pretty good- Photoshop pattern remover!

That looks like a useful script Conrad. Thanks for the link.

Maybe I've got to move on from Photoshop Elements 8, seems like I'm missing out on some good stuff.

I don't use Photoshop so can't run this but the results are pretty good- Photoshop pattern remover!

 

This pattern remover is an FFT process which are great for exactly repeating patterns over the entire image. I use it on images that have been scanned from prints that have a regular pattern in the paper used for printing.

 

There are a number of these FFT plugins/Actions available and If the pattern is not exactly repeating or if not over the entire image, FFT is of limited usefulness. It does not help in the case of the OPs banding problem.

 

Thanks for sharing the link though as it solves a specific problem amazingly well.