Must tidy up my garden

[JPS]

Hi all,
just trying to learn Elements 9. Wondered what you all thought.

C&C welcome.

[Dave Humphries]

Nice composition John, it does need a clockwise rotation and perhaps some perspective correction to get the verticals vertical though.

When you replace a sky like that; zoom right in and use a smaller brush when erasing/masking and do the edges right up to the roof and trees edges, or it is too obvious, especially where blue sky. You did one bit OK, but got bored I expect

Cheers,

[JPS]

Thanks for the feed back Dave, Guilty as charged.
Is there an easier way to blend the sky into trees and bushes, so that it look natural, without taking forever?
I've tried to tidy it up using your suggestions, don't know if it's better. Still a lot to learn and it doesn't help that my wife's not here to advise on any colour issue as I have a visual colour defect.
I suppose I just need lots more practice. lol

[Dave Humphries]

It is better around the tree, but there is still the taller ridge of the thatched roof ...

No, I can't help with selection ideas, I'm sure there are some, but I don't usually do this kind of thing.

btw, some thieving whatsit just nicked the chimney!

Better straight.

[JPS]

Thanks Dave,
I think I'll come back and have another go at this picture at later date; once I get a bit more experienced. I think I'm trying to do something that is beyond my skill level at the moment, but I will get there one day; I hope . Fun trying though.
Thanks for the advice.
I'll start looking for the missing chimney now. Lol

[Shadowman]

Very nice a bit pale in areas though.

[Geoff F]

Messing around with sky and trees is always tricky to get correct, John. Often impossible.

And if you shoot into the light you frequently get a little bit of 'colour fringing' problems which can create a slight 'halo' effect on some edges which makes any further work extremely difficult.

The simple answer here is to shoot again with the sun behind you; unless that means moving the houses around.

[FrankMi]

For sky replacement, have a look at this. The process should be similar in Elements but as I don't have Elements, I can't test to see exactly what the differences are. Hope this helps!

[JPS]

Thanks everyone for your coments and advice.
Frank, I will check out the tutorial your have recommended, hopefully that might help me improve.

[ScoutR]

Hi John, lovely shot of a lovely garden.

I can't help at all with adding a new sky, but when I look at your original shot it looks like the halos would be quite easy to fix in Elements.

I would use the quick selection tool and select around the top of the roof and chiminey. It doesn't matter how much of the roof you get in the selection as long as the edges against the sky are selected. Then go to the Select Menu and Inverse the selection. Then use the clone tool to clone the sky in around the halos on the roof and around the chiminey. Don't forget to INVERSE the selection. That way you can clone right up to the edges. The cloning will only show on the unselected areas and will not overlap onto the roof and chiminey.

Wendy

[JPS]

Thanks Wendy,
I'll give it a try and let you know how I got on.

John

[GrahamH]

Don't forget the use of blending modes, they are a HUGE help in replacing skies and the like around complex shapes (such as leaves).
I often use the DARKEN blending mode (multiply is alsoa good one). The darker pixel is chosen between two layers. So, if the sky is originally light, then a darker sky would be chosen automatically. The leaves on the trees above the roofline would also be chosen (not the replacement sky). As the roof may be lighter and/or darker, the blending mode would not be of much use. BUT as it is a straight edge (pretty much) that makes the manual selection so much easier.
Once you've got the hang of the various tools, it should only take a few minutes to do a pretty good job.

Graham
(still lots to learn myself)

[rpcrowe]

John,
This is a nice shot.
However, the replaced sky doesn't look natural to me. When you have a bright sunny blue sky, there are usually shadows. The lighting of the cottage and garden is nice but, diffused. IMO, if you had a stormy gray sky, it might look better..