Okay, so here’s the lighting situation. State fair. Can’t reschedule. Bright day. No shade. If you expose for the sky, the foreground is too dark, if you expose for the foreground, the sky blows out to an ugly, ugly white. Your camera is only a machine – a very pretty, very expensive machine, but just a machine. It can’t compensate like the human eye can for that kind of light discrepancy.
Exhibit A – ugly blown out sky:
If you plan for it at the time you’re shooting, you could take several exposures then use the sky from one shot and the foreground from another shot and combine them in Photoshop. This is a lot like what HDR does. But if you can’t use multiple exposures you’re stuck with an ugly white sky or a silhouette.
The solution to fix this? Select the sky only. Make the sky a new layer. Overlay a blue gradient. Reduce the opacity so it looks realistic. If this sounds too complex for your Photoshop experience level, I have another really fast, really simple option.
MCP Actions has two solutions – if you still have a touch of cyan or blue left in the sky you can use “Sky is Bluer Illusion” from Jodi’s Bag of Tricks action set. This will increase the existing blues in the shot, however faint. If the sky is totally white, like this shot – you need the “Fake Blue Sky Illusion” action.
Not perfect, but a very quick fix and much better than leaving it white and over-exposed looking.
Want to try this on your own photos? Here’s how:
- Run over to MCP Actions and grab Jodi’s Bag of Tricks action set. Install in Photoshop or in Elements.
- Find a photo that has very little sky color or one that is totally blown out and open it in Photoshop.
- Run the action. A dialog box will pop up. Using the dropper icon, click on the sky a couple times until it looks totally white. Hit OK.
That’s all there is to it! If you try this out, I’d love to see it. Leave us a link in the comments so we can come see the difference.
Happy photoshopping. 
I don’t have Photoshop, so I can’t really do this. BUT I took the same picture a couple weeks ago when I went to the fair! Well, you know, not the SAME photo. But the same shot of the same ride.
Really, though, I just wanted to tell you how much I LOVE the buttons for the 31 Days project you all are doing – and I can’t wait for the 31 days to start!!
You came to Des Moines and didn’t tell me?! Did you know Ruthanne from Eclectic Whatnot was here during fair time, too? She was and it was fun. If you go next year, let me know!
thanks for the tip darcy! i definitely have taken pics like this where the sky is super blown out! i really need to get my hands on photoshop, i’m really thinking of taking a class or something so i can at least learn the basics too!!
Thanks so much for the tip Darcy. I’ve always wondered how best to fix a blown out sky, since this happens to me a lot!
) I’ve wanted to purchase the MCP action set, but just haven’t been able to. I do have Magic Skin and love it! Anyway, here is a quick fix following your instructions. http://just-thauna.blogspot.com/2010/08/fixing-sky.html
Thanks!
the sun was quickly setting today. the sky was bright pink and there was a rainbow. stupid camera settings, stupid slow me to realize it, stupid still needs to read my manual or at least remember the parts i’ve already read! by the time i adjusted, the rainbow faded and the sky wasn’t pink anymore. bleh bleh bleh.
end of vent.
thank you for listening.
To shoot rainbows at sunset – try underexposing the shot by 1 stop… maybe two. Otherwise you risk losing all the colors.
Soooo empathize. Been there done that too many times to count. But it motivates you to be ready next time.