Improving Sky

[DeputyDawg]

Hello

 

Sorry for a basic question, but JUST installed Affinity.  I'm trying it out vs. Luminar.

 

Anyways, I have a great pic but the sky is great.  I want to make it blue

 

1) Is there a way to just change the sky color

2) I have seen the tutorials about sky replacement.  But (and here is my dumb question):  In the videos they have two pics opened in tabs. How the heck do you do that so you can go back and forth?  I have the first pic opened in Affinity. I then go into  Photos and open the other and edit with Affinity. This opens a second window with the second pic but NONE of the side bar stuff is there.

 

I'm sure i'm doing something basic wrong.

 

Thanks

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, DeputyDawg. :) (You might want to upload a suitable avatar!)

 

I have the first pic opened in Affinity. I then go into  Photos and open the other and edit with Affinity.

 

Affinity is a suite of programs, currently comprising Designer and Photo: I presume you're using Affinity Photo. From your reference to "Photos", I infer that you're using a Mac.

 

I don't have a Mac, so I don't know if there's any advantage to opening your images in Photos, but you might want to try opening the second photo directly in Affinity. Maybe switching to Separated mode will make the missing "side bar stuff" show up.

[toltec]

A bit hard because I don't know what you are seeing or if on a Mac or PC.

 

This is what you get on a PC

 

Here we have two pictures open, showing them in tabs "Penguins" and "Tulips". I just went File - Open for each one.

 

 

Simply click on the second tab and this is what you (should get)

 

 

To select the sky, I used the flood select tool, (mine might be in a slightly different place as I have customised my tools) but it is shown here as the third tool from the top. A little magic wand.

 

 

 

If you click on the sky, hold down the mouse button and drag it to the right , or down. This increases the tolerance so you gradually get more sky selected. When you are happy, let go. 

 

You can then go to Layers, New adjustment layer, HSL adjustment and adjust the colour.

 

 

 

It has missed a bit of sky between the tulips because I had contiguous" selected on the context bar. Uncheck it and it selects all similar colour, 

[R C-R]

My reply to you in this topic should be helpful regarding opening several photos at once from the Apple Photos library. Otherwise, you can drop individual photo files not in the Photos library on the Affinity app icon in the Applications folder or on its Dock icon if you have it there, or right-click on them one at a time in Finder windows & choose Affinity Photo (or Affinity Designer if you own it) from the "Open with ..." submenu.

 

You can also 'bind' some image file types (like jpg or tiff) to Affinity Photo so they always open in that app when you double-click on one in Finder windows. To do this, select a file of the desired file type in a Finder window, click on "Get Info" from the File menu. In the "Open with:" section of the info window, choose Affinity Photo, & then click on the "Change All..." button. If you don't click the "Change All..." button, only that file will open in AP by default, so this is a very flexible option.

[DeputyDawg]

Toitec..

 

Thanks, that was helpful.  I'm using a mac. I found the flood select.

 

However, when it implement it, it "floods" the whole pic.  I don't see how to only select the sky in my example.

[Alfred]

The first thing to do is go to the Layers panel and check that you're working on a pixel layer, not an image layer. An image layer only allows global changes.

 

If the layer in question is labelled as '(Image)' then you need to right-click it and choose 'Rasterize...' so that the designation changes to '(Pixel)'. You will then be able to flood fill the selected region without affecting anything else.

[DeputyDawg]

Thanks,

 

What I did, removed ALL layers down to the original (pixel).  Flood worked fine.

 

I added a new pixel layer and then flood selected the entire photo again.

 

So back to the original layer with the sky selected, I found no way to change the color.

 

In full discloser, i'm new to photo editing.  So this is clearly my own lack of knowledge.

 

However, when testing the other product I was able to easily do what I wanted to do.   

 

So far Affinity is NOT working for me and if i had to decide now - i would not buy it.

 

If someone has the patience to help me or point me in the right direction or just flat out tell me what I want to do can't be done, thats fine.

 

I also saw some videos on sky replacement, going to play around with those now.

 

Despite my negative tone, I do greatly appreciate all the help and quick responses.

[DeputyDawg]

Perhaps if I upload the pic i'm looking to do this, you can tell me if what I want to do is possible..

[R C-R]

I added a new pixel layer and then flood selected the entire photo again.

Don't do that. Just flood select only the sky, or whatever else it is you want to edit or replace with something from another image.

 

The idea is to be selective, to select only what you want to change.

[toltec]

To start with, why are you flood selecting whole photos?

 

Flood select it to select areas of colour, like sky, as I have done below. No layers at all yet except for the "background" one.

 

 

Here is a selection using the flood select to select the sky

 

 

Go to edit fill or press Shift F5

And this should happen

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If you click on the custom colour bit, you can fill with any colour you like.

 

This was all done on the one layer. I think you are getting in a mix with layers, if so you won't be alone.

 

 

It you create a fill layer and put it behind the image layer, if you go back to the image layer (by selecting it in the layers panel) you wont see anything because that layer is still white (in the sky) and obscuring the fill layer. You need to make the sky area transparent to let the background layer show through.

 

 

The layer order would be

 

Image you are working on (rename it ideally)

Blue fill layer (no flood select involved at all)

Original unchanged Image "Background"

 

 

So, make a duplicate of your image and then make a fill layer using the menu option   Layer - New Fill Layer  and just pick a colour, no need to select anything. In fact make sure nothing is selected first or it will all go wrong. You will duplicate the selection or the selected area only !!!   Make sure that fill layer is below the new (duplicated) image layer that you want to work on (drag in down in the layers panel) or go to Arrange - Back One. Click on the new image layer (now the top layer). Using the flood select tool select the area of sky you want to change and press "delete". That will allow the fill colour in the middle fill layer to show through. 

 

Remember that if you flood select, Affinity sets selection tolerance by you clicking and dragging on an area of colour with the mouse. So click on the sky and drag right or down to expand the selected area. The context menu will show what it is set to and changes as you drag and the tolerance changes.

 

To be really clever, instead of a fill layer, find a nice image with a nice sky, put that in a pixel layer instead of the fill layer, then when you select the top layer and delete the sky you will see the new sky showing through in just that area. Looks far more natural.

 

Note, always make a duplicate copy of the "Background" image first so you have a copy. The original will also be locked by default (padlock) which can cause difficulties from time to time.

 

Also, please note that there are better ways to achieve this but try the above first so the get the basic idea. I don't want to confuse you. Not yet  :)

[toltec]

P.S. Don't give up or get disheartened. I spent 30 years using Photoshop and have found some things in Affinity a bit wierd, in the "wrong" place or hard to find due to lack of documentation but believe me, it's worth the effort. I prefer it to Photoshop now.

 

There is a good bunch of people here to help and even the staff get involved.