Turning an Overcast Sky Blue

©JP Parmley

I recently had someone ask me how to turn an overcast sky blue.  If you have trees that you can see through and they are high above the horizon, this can be very tricky.  But if they are low, like the example below, there are several methods you can use to get the affect, but one simple way for even novice Photoshop users is to add a blue gradient fade.

First, use any selection tool to select just the sky.  Don't worry about being perfect around the horizon because the blue will be fading to transparent at that point.   Once you have the selection, choose the gradient tool and put it in a color to transparent and linear mode  (see red arrows). Then select a light blue for your top color.

Then use the gradient tool drawing from the top of the picture to about 3/4 way down the selected sky.  If you do not like the result, try drawing longer or shorter lines.  Just be aware that this tool is additive.  If you do not like the first result, undo it.  If you keep using the tool on top of an existing blue gradient fade, it keeps adding to the blue.

Try playing with different shades of blue and opacity. 

Enjoy.

  

Original Picture with Overcast Sky

Use the this mode for the gradient tool

Blue sky added.

Canon 5D Mark III - High ISO

©JP Parmley

Ever tried getting that picture of something in motion in low light, without a flash?  When I upgraded the 5D Mark IIs to Mark IIIs, I did so specifically for the higher ISO range and the 61 point focus system.  The picture below may not look like a stellar professional picture, but once you realize the situation, you will find how amazing it is that this picture is even visible.

Before I give you all the details or you cheat and look to the end, decide what you think the settings were for this picture.  I will tell you that the subject is moving at about 15 mph and the aperture was 2.8.  As you can see this is an indoor, poorly lit race track.

I suspect that you may be thinking that it was taken at about 1/30-1/60th, f/2.8, ISO around 1600-3200.  This setting range would be consistent with many photos of this type of shot.  However, take a closer look at the hair and the wheels.  You can see that the motion has been stopped......you can even see the valve stem of the rear wheel.  So now we know the shutter was much faster than 1/60th, otherwise it would be blurred from the motion.

In fact, I intentionally pushed the limits of this picture by setting the shutter to 1/500th and put the ISO on an Auto setting. This would push the ISO to an extreme.  I could have shot this at about 1/200th and had almost the same result with a lower ISO and a much lower noise level.  But I wanted to show what pushing the Mark III would do.  The 1/500th shutter pushed the ISO to 12,800!  

Now, I would normally slow the shutter down a little to bring the ISO down, but for demonstration purposes, I wanted to see the performance.  If you would have wanted an ISO in the 1600-3200 range, you would have had to have a much slower shutter and would have had extreme motion blur.  The bottom line is that you could not have gotten this fast shutter shot with out the high ISO performance.

So here is one crude example of the high ISO performance of the 5D Mark III. Try taking a picture at ISO 12,800 on a Mark II or 7D and see what happens. Wedding season is just around the corner, in fact it starts next week in Cincinnati for us. This camera is a game changer as most reviews have said.  I am very much looking forward to the new creative modes this opens up.

Enjoy.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM review

©JP Parmley

Dpreview.com has completed their review of the the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II lens.  They describe it as

.."a near-flawless lens with optics that come very close to matching a set of top-quality primes. With fast, accurate auto focus and weather-sealed construction, it's difficult to find any really serious faults at all."

Check out the full review: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II Review

Smoke on the Water

©JP Parmley

Smoke on the Water

Here is a quick edit to one of the smoke pictures taken last year.  I was looking to add a little more color and a shadow.  But after I was done experimenting in Photoshop Elements, I ended up with something a little more dramatic.

I started off in Photoshop with the original picture.  After I rotated it, I made independent selections and feathered them about 40 pixels before I added the hue and saturation adjustments.  Once I had the colors where I wanted them, I then applied a flood filter from Flaming Pear.  You can a get this filter here.  http://www.flamingpear.com/flood.html

Original Picture

Adjusted Hue and Saturation

Flaming Pear Flood Filter

The adjustments I made are shown in the picture to get the effect I landed on.  After the water effect was added, I imported the final picture into Lightroom and began some light sharpening and color saturation local adjustments.  It took about 10 minutes to finalize the edits.

I'm still waiting for the weather to break.  We have lots of engagement and wedding shoots to complete going into spring!

Enjoy!