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Replace the sky in your photos

  1. Photoshop User Guide
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    5. Photoshop | Common Questions
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    4. Create, open, and export documents
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    24. Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
    25. Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop on the iPad
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    1. Common questions
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    7. Generative AI features
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    2. Generative Fill in Photoshop on the desktop
    3. Generate Image with descriptive text prompts
    4. Generative Expand in Photoshop on the desktop
    5. Replace background with Generate background
    6. Get new variations with Generate Similar
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    15. Process versions in Camera Raw
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    1. Remove Tool
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    3. Content-Aware Patch and Move
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    6. Basic troubleshooting steps to fix most issues
  18. Image enhancement and transformation
    1. Replace sky in your images
    2. Transform objects
    3. Adjust crop, rotation, and canvas size
    4. How to crop and straighten photos
    5. Create and edit panoramic images
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Create the mood you want with a quick sky replacement

In the past, replacing the sky required multiple steps and careful fine tuning in order to achieve a seamless look. Now you can save time and get the look you want by letting Adobe Sensei do the masking and blending for you. 

Replaced sky

Add drama to your images with Sky Replacement

Introduced in October 2020 (v22.0) and updated in August 2021 (v22.5)

Reduce the number of steps in your photo editing workflow by using the new Sky Replacement feature.

Follow these 3 simple steps to get started:

  1. Access Sky Replacement

    Choose Edit > Sky Replacement.

  2. Choose a new sky

    • The Sky Replacement dialog will appear
    • Select a new sky from the included presets or add one of your own
  3. Adjust the settings to create the perfect image

    The sky area on the original image is automatically selected and masked, allowing the new sky to be displayed based on your selected options. For a seamless look, adjust the sliders to modify the sky and blend the foreground with the background colors.

    Easily replace the sky in your image
    Easily replace the sky in your image

Fine tune Sky Replacement settings

Sky Replacement panel in Photoshop

A. Sky Move tool B. Sky Brush C. Hand Tool D. Zoom Tool E. Manage sky presets F. Preset Preview Zoom G. Delete Skies H. Import skies from images I. Create a new sky group J. Recently used skies K. Sky Preset Menu 

In the Sky Replacement dialog, you can set the following options:

  • Shift Edge: Determines where the border between the sky and the original image begins.
  • Fade Edge: Sets the amount of fading or feathering from the sky image to the original photo along the edges
  • Brightness: Adjusts the brightness of the sky
  • Temperature: Adjusts the temperature of the sky warmer or cooler
  • Scale: Resizes the sky image
  • Flip: Flips the sky image horizontally
  • Lighting mode: Determines the blending mode used for lighting adjustments
  • Foreground Lighting: Use to set the contrast for foreground; a setting of zero will not make any adjustments
  • Edge Lighting: Slider to control the lighting adjustments applied to the object edges in your sky images; a setting of zero will not make any adjustments
  • Color Adjustment: Opacity slider that determines how strongly the foreground is harmonized with the sky colors - a setting of zero will not make any adjustments
  • Output: This allows you to select whether the changes to the image are placed on New Layers (named Sky Replacement Group) or a Duplicate Layer (single flattened layer)
sky replacement

Edge enhancement

With the April 2022 release of Photoshop 23.3, we have improved the quality along the edges of objects in Sky Replacement. Now the contrast between the foreground and background around the thin line objects is better preserved while the halo artifacts are also reduced when replacing a bright sky with a darker sky. The sky mask has been further enhanced for high-resolution images by introducing a new layer group with adjustments using multiply blend modes to improve the overall sky composite.

Edge enhancement in sky replacement
Use the Edge Lighting slider for better blending along edges of objects in your sky composite

To control the lighting adjustments applied to the object edges in your sky images, simply use the new Edge Lighting slider in the Sky Replacement dialog. Larger values provide higher contrast while reducing halos along the edges.

You can see a new layer group called the Edge Lighting Group is added to the layer stack of the sky replacement result. All the rest of the layers remains the same.

Edge lighting layer group

Select and manage sky presets

In the Sky Preset flyout menu, you can set the following options:

  • Import Skies:
    • Import Skies from images: Use for creating one or more new sky presets from your own sky images. This function allows you to select multiple images and import them as new presets in one batch.
    • Import Skies from Sky Presets: Use for importing existing sky presets from one or more .sky files.
sky replacement

  • Create New Sky Group: Create a new group of presets for various sky use cases that you frequently work with
  • Rename Sky: Change the name of a sky from the list
  • Delete Sky: Delete one or more skies from the list
  • Show Recents: Show recently accessed skies on the list
  • Append Default Skies: Use this option to append Sky defaults to the list of Sky presets
  • Export Selected Skies: Export chosen sky presets to a .sky file and save it on your machine.
  • Get More Skies: Takes you to the Adobe Discover website where you can view and download more sky images or sky presets, for free. 

Get More Skies for sky replacement

With the August 2021 (v22.5) release, a new menu item in the Sky Preset fly-out menu will take you to the Adobe Discover website where you can view and download more sky images for free.

Improved Sky Replacement panel
Use the Get More Skies option to browse through a number of free sky files and pick the perfect sky for your images

To access new sky files, do the following:

  1. Navigate to Edit > Sky Replacement.

  2. Click the Sky disclosure arrow to reveal the Manage Sky Presets panel.

  3. Click the gear icon in Manage Sky Presets panel to expose the fly-out Sky Preset menu.

  4. Choose Get More Skies...

    • The Sky Replacement dialog stays open, but the user’s default web browser is launched.
    • The web browser automatically opens to the Get More Skies page on the Adobe Discover website.

    If you are currently logged out on the website, you would be automatically logged in when being directed to the website from Photoshop.

  5. Select a Sky Pack for download. Each Sky Pack is represented with an animation of example images.

  6. The downloaded .sky file can be imported as a new sky preset in Sky Replacement by doing any of the following:

    • manually through the sky preset menu (both Mac/Win)
    • drag and drop .sky files to the Photoshop canvas while Sky Replacement is not open (both Mac/Win)
    • drag and drop onto the blank title bar area (Mac only)
    Get


 Adobe

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