The recent epidemic of absolutely beautiful skies made me think of all those times I shot pictures of what I thought were interesting skyscapes, only to load them up on the computer and be disappointed at how boring and dull they looked on the screen. Let’s face it – how many of us interested amateurs with point-and-shoot cameras walk around with a Neutral Density Gradient filter in our bags?
Enter Scott Kelby with a quick fix for toning skies.
What I learned at the CS3 Power Tour:
6. Mimicking the effect of using a Neutral Density Gradient filter is a simple three step process.
Okay, I think it was technically five steps. But it really felt like just three.
So I was going through some of my older photo folders and found my stash of Maui pictures. One picture particularly caught my eye, and I wondered why I never worked on it. Then I looked at it full size and remembered why – the sky just looked blah to me, not like the clean blue that I remembered.
Enter Photoshop and the gradient fill layer. Make the skies ever so slightly bluer without touching the foreground, and now I have the picture I want.*
And just for kicks, I threw in a Portraiture filter to mix things up a little. I’m all about mixing, you know. That’s ’cause here at The Ivory Hut, we’re equal opportunity filter users.
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*If you’re really interested in the process, here you go:
- Create an adjustment layer (choose Gradient) and make sure your foreground color is black.
- Pick the second gradient (from medium gray to transparent) and make sure the dark area of the gradient is in the right position. Hit reverse to position it over the sky, or even change the angle if that’s what works best for the photo.
- Change the layer blend mode to Overlay, and then go back to the gradient fill dialog to tweak the settings. To do this, double-click on the gradient adjustment layer thumbnail in your layers palette.
- Click on the gradient thumbnail in the dialog to bring up the gradient editor, and move the sliders so that the gradient stops where it’s supposed to stop. Done!
Okay, so those are four steps. I can always make up a fifth one, or remove one to make it three. But then that’d just be more work for me, and you know me. I’m all about avoiding work. That’s ’cause here at The Ivory Hut, we’re minimal opportunity brain cell users.