Can I use my own sky?

[mrondeau Profile]

I would like to replace a sky using a sky that I took, as opposed to using one of the presets. Is it possible to do this with the Smart Photo Editor? If so, how do I do it? Thanks.

[Richard Briggs Profile]

The good news is 'yes'. The bad news I can't remember the detail of how I did it! But...

The obvious way is using overlays and using this to remove the sky on one photo revealing the sky below (the replacement sky). Done carefully this can be very effective.

But the best way I've found is to....

'Select Area' and Choose 'Sky'
Paint over the area in the image you want to be replaced with an alternative sky. Once again, care and time (like anything) produces best results.
Once complete, you now have a new sky which, hopefully, looks OK.
But you want to use your own photo of sky?
You need to right-click the sky overlay (top right) and select manual edit.
You will now be able to edit the various elements of what makes that sky effect.
One of these 'boxes' will be responsible for bringing in the existing default sky photo. And here's where my memory fails me!
Hunt around and you will find it. Edit it and replace the default image with your own.
You can then save the effect if you want.

Note, from an artistic viewpoint, it is easy to create something that looks strange. For example, a sky taken with an ultra wide angle lens will look weird on a photo taken with an 80mm lens.

Richard

[admin]

There's a video tutorial on sky replacement here.