Any Photoshop experts out there......

[Encantador]

Or any other similar programme for that matter.

I need to find out whether there is a way to change the weather on photographs, mainly a dull day into a bright day.

Unfortunately my business (when I get started) will be dictated to a large degree by the weather, can`t shoot on rainy or windy days, but it would help enormously if I could shoot on dull overcast days (because we have so many).

Because we are shooting down, keeping the sky in shot to a minimum might be possible, but on some shots there woud have to be some sky, so basically I need to change a grey sky to a nice blue sky and change the whole pic to look like it was a sunny day, not too much to ask (;0)

IF it can be done.....

I am happy to .......
a) Pay for someone to show me how or
b) Pay someone to do t for me

Thanks in advance.

Steve

[panix]

Hi Steve,

There is loads of ways of brightening up a photograph. Your first port of call should be image>adjustments>levels. I won’t go into using it because there is loads of good tutorials and books around. Secondly Photoshop is full of really cool tools for cutting stuff out i.e. the sky, which will allow you to replace it with a new sunny one. Again check out some of the tutorials through Google.

I know this has probably been of limited help but I’ll give you one good tip. When editing any photograph work on large resolution files and then reduce the size to suite the web, this way any changes won’t be obvious changes.

Just out of curiosity how many images are we talking about changing here? If its going to be loads on a regular basis then it will most likely be cheaper to do it yourself

If I can be of any more help give me a shout

Richard

[XS Developments]

Hi Steve,

We've been doing loads of photoshop work recently in scenes predominantly made up of sky (wind turbines, and less glamourously, electrical pylons) ... and it can be a bit of a fiddle sometimes to get right.

You'll find soon enough that it's not enough just to change a dull sky for a bright one (due to brightness, colour tone etc of the rest of the picture ... e.g. you can't have dull grey buildings with a sky which tells us it's bright and sunny!!).

If you're set on doing it yourself, then I'd recommend a book I picked up the other day titled "how to cheat in photoshop" (by Steve Caplin). It has some very useful tips on cutting out shapes and balancing images.

If you can't quite get the look you want yourself and would like help, or would simply like us to do it, then please drop a line. I've mentioned this page on here before, but I'll use this thread as a plug again:

http://www.xsdevelopments.com/montage/montage1.html

Cheerio,
Jim

[lauraturner]

You get astonishing results with the Shadow/Highlight feature.

Image > adjustments > shadow/highlight

I have mainly used it on interior shots....but you should get a decent result if you play around with the settings.

Im on Photoshop CS2, and cant remember if the feature is available in earlier versions.

Also you could try "match colour". If you find a similar shot with good weather you can transfer some of the colour elements....google for tutorials.

there is also superb photoshop tutorials available on www.totaltraining.com I think the match colour tutorial is on the free 1 you can request to be sent to you.

iPhoto on a mac has some good features and is very easy to use....pc people > is there a similar application on a pc?

[defuzz]

what kind of camera will you be using?

If you use a camera which allows you to shoot in "raw" mode then you'll have a lot more control in post-production. Most cameras, when they produce an image save it as JPG so it compresses the image and applies a variety of tools to it, such as sharpening, colour balance etc depending on the camera settings. Digital SLRs and a growing number of point and shoot cameras allow you to use RAW mode, whereby it saves the image as an uncompressed file without applying all sorts of sharperning etc.

It produces a much bigger file and it takes a little longer to get a usable JPG for web use etc. But the important thing is, with the right software you can make a whole load of adjustments such as colour balance, white balance etc. Of course you can change some things in a JPG in photoshop but its fundamentally more controllable and in my opinion better when done to the RAW image.


So what am I saying?

-Try a camera with RAW function
-Do what the otheres said re: photoshop techniques





Mast photography is a fascinating business idea, its something I've looked at myself as I've long had an interest in photography and have experimented with cheap digi cams on kites in the past, but I simply don't have the funds to start up!!

What kind of mast are you using? One of the clark masts?
Of the other mast photo businesses I've seen, the canon powershot range seem to be popular and as far as I know many of them produce raw images.

[lauraturner]

Originally posted by defuzz

Digital SLRs and a growing number of point and shoot cameras allow you to use RAW mode, whereby it saves the image as an uncompressed file without applying all sorts of sharperning etc.

It produces a much bigger file and it takes a little longer to get a usable JPG for web use etc. But the important thing is, with the right software you can make a whole load of adjustments such as colour balance, white balance etc. Of course you can change some things in a JPG in photoshop but its fundamentally more controllable and in my opinion better when done to the RAW image.

nice post....heard of RAW images before but didnt really know what they were (only that it was a better format). Dont do much photography so didnt bother to look it up.

Now I know

[Encantador]

defuzz

The Canon range are used because there is software to control the camera from the laptop including a live viewfinder feed.

I have the Canon proshot 1, I will check if it shoots RAW, I think it does. How steep is the learning curve to be able to get the results I need though, any idea???

Yes it`s a Clarke mast the 15 metre.

Thanks to everyone for the replies so far.

[defuzz]

Its great using my Canon through the PC but its an SLR so it doesn't have live view :-(