I’d like to enhance the blues in the sky to increase the contrast with the clouds. To do this I’ll go to the HSL settings and select “luminance”.
Now pull the slider for blue to the left. The setting that you want to use will depend on your photo and also on how strong you want the effect to be. I’m going to set it at -65.
After that change the photo looks like this:
Depending on your photo you may also want to adjust the settings for aqua, but in most cases simply adjust the blue slider will do.
Next, click on “saturation”.
Move the blue slider to the right to add saturation to the sky. Again, the amount that you want will vary from one photo to the next. In this case I am setting it to 35.
And that’s it! Here is the end result:
OPTION 2: THE GRADUATED FILTER
The graduated filter tool is ideal for enhancing skies, especially when the photo has a fairly straight horizon. With the graduated filter you will have greater control than you will be using the HSL settings, and the graduated filter can also be used for enhancing sunset colors or adjusting exposure selectively.
Let’s take a look at an example, using this sample photo:
Click on the icon for the graduated filter tool, or use the keyboard shortcut “M”.
Now the first thing you’ll need to do is apply a graduated filter to your photo. Click near the horizon and drag down and then release your mouse. Don’t worry too much about the exact placement at first because you can adjust it after you have added it to the photo.
Once you have the graduated filter added to the photo you can line it up more accurately. You want the middle line to be right on the horizon, as close as possible. The graduated filter will impact only one in one direction. In this case it will impact the area above the horizon (above the middle line) without impacting the area below.
If you want to make sure that you have it facing the right direction move the exposure slider all the way in one direction. If you see the change at the top half of the photo you have it facing the right direction.
If you see it impacting the bottom half of your photo you can adjust it by hovering the mouse over the middle line until you see a half circle with arrows at each end. When you see this, click and rotate to change it so the filter is impacting the top of the photo.
To adjust the middle line, click on the center point and drag it.
Ok, now we can start making our adjustments. Here are the settings that I am using with this sample photo:
- Contrast: 50
- Highlights: -15
- Clarity: 30
- Saturation: 30
Next, we’ll add some color. Click on the icon at the bottom next to “color”.
From here you will be able to select the color that you want to use. You can click around and try different colors to see how thy effect your photo.
And here is a look at the end result:
So when you want to add some life to a dull blue sky, these are two different ways that you can do it.
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