I followed all her steps for the most part, but I used an existing photo I had of sky/clouds instead of using a brush.  And then some of the other instructions I changed up a bit too. Here’s how to do it!

1)  Open the photo that you want to add a sky to.

2)  Open a sky/cloud image and use the “move” tool to position it on top of your photograph. (p.s. I have gone outside and taken 10+ photos of skies.  If you are interested in having them, let me know by leaving a comment and I can e-mail them to you….)

3)  Turn OFF the sky/cloud image by clicking on the little eyeball to the left of it in the layers palette.

4)  With the image layer selected, go into “channels” and click on the blue channel layer.  Duplicate it by dragging the layer down to the “create new channel” icon to the left of the garbage can icon.

5)  Working with the blue channel copy layer, go “ctrl-M” to get into curves. Slide over as instructed on the video (or see my image example below) and click OK.

6)  This is where my instructions change from the tutorial:  With the blue channel copy layer selected (which is now totally black and white), take the magic wand tool and click on the white sky.  There will now be “marching ants” around your white sky selection.

7)  Click back on your layers and click the sky/cloud image layer and click the “eyeball” so it’s visible.

8 )  Create a layer mask by clicking on the layer mask icon (the little icon to the right of “fx”).

9)  Un-link the sky/cloud image and the layer mask – then you’ll be able to move it around and re-size it in step 12.

10)  Don’t worry if it looks like crap right now – you are going to fix that.  :-) With a soft BLACK brush (50% opacity, 50% flow), paint on the “horizon” or where the sky/clouds and the horizon/subject meet.  Paint, paint until you think it looks pretty good.  Don’t worry if you removed too much – if you did, simply select the white brush and paint where you’d like to ADD more sky/clouds.  Remember that black CONCEALS, white REVEALS.

11)  Then this is the COOL part – change the opacity of the sky/cloud image down to like 45% or where you think it looks good.  You can also CLICK ON THE SKY/CLOUD IMAGE directly (NOT the image mask) and go “image”, “adjustments”, “hue/saturation” and slide your color, saturation, and lightness around until you are content.  You can also try changing the blending modes of your sky/cloud image – try multiply, darken, lighten, overlay, etc. at varying opacities to get the look you want.  I just used “normal” though.

12)  You can also click “Ctrl-T” to “transform” your sky/cloud image (remember to click on THAT, NOT your image mask) and you can resize it!  (hold the shift key down and resize from a CORNER – very important so your image doesn’t warp).

13)  Once you are all done, flatten your image (“layer”, “flatten image”), save as a jpeg and you are ready to print!

Here’s some example photos.  Follow along and try it yourself! I’d love to see your results!

left = before/ right = aftersame photo, different sky & clouds.  :-)  Plus changed the hue/saturation. For my next tutorial, I’ll show you how to add rainbows and rainbow flare to a photo.  :-)

It was great meeting you Christin!  We’ll definitely have to meet up again!  :-)

The top photo is what my camera thinks the white balance should be -i.e. “auto” white balance.  It’s very yellow-toned/warm.  The bottom is the correct white balance for the room & lighting currently.

I switched back into auto and snapped a photo, then went back into my new custom white balance – what a difference, huh?  (yeah, don’t look too closely at the photos, I just snapped them for illustration purposes….not 100% sharp…plus shooting at ISO 2000, aperture 1.8, shutter 1/80, Nikon D700, Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens) It’s totally dark now, but I can’t wait to try it out in my front room where I shoot all the time!  You would not believe how I have to edit the photos to get the result I want….it’s ridiculous!  (see this post for an example…)

My neighbor Nichole and I were chatting on the phone last week and we talked each other into getting one of these.  SO glad I did!!  And it folds up into a nice little 6″ circle that fits perfectly in my camera bag!  Another cool thing is the opposite side is a silver reflector!  BONUS!  :-)

Anyway, thought I’d share….  :-)

OH, and the cool thing is since I shoot in raw, I can adjust the temp and tint to match my custom white balance in case I mess up and have it set to auto wb. In other words, my temp was 2600 and tint was +3 in the “test” image.  If I put the sliders to that same temp/tint on the “auto wb” files, the color looks way better.  Apparently it’s even easier to do this (i.e. sync from the “test file” & apply to multiple “incorrect color” files) in Light Room – but I don’t have that.  :-(   So in other words, you can mess with the temp and tint to get it where you’d like it (pretty much) if your white balance is off and you shoot in raw, but it’s soooooo much easier to just get it right straight out of the camera.  :-)

having a little fun last Friday night. To make your own, follow these steps in Photoshop:

1) open each pic you want to use and resize to 600 pixels on the long side, 72dpi (make sure to size to 72dpi first, then size 600 pixels on the long side)
2) put each photo in it’s own layer – all on top of the first image you want to use.
3) click on “window”, “animation” – you may need to click on the icon on the far right to get to frame animation.
4) turn OFF the “eye” on all the layers.
5) click ON the “eye” on the first layer you want to use.
6) on the animation strip, click the little icon to the left of the garbage can to get a NEW FRAME
7) click on the “eye” on the next layer you want to use.
repeat steps 6&7 until all your photos are in there.
9) save your project as a .psd before you lose it!
10) highlight ALL layers in the animation strip and highlight all your photo layers (ctrl-shift each photo frame)
11) file – save for web & devices – save – save as type = images only.  This will be your final .gif file.
12) log into photobucket, upload. Put the html code or image code on your blog, facebook, website, whatever.

What you do is have your photo open in a window – then you “drag” it to this program to get it in.  Then work away, save when you are ready.  I haven’t really messed with the “sliders” much – this is still sorta new to me.  You can also apply different frames.  The bad part is I can’t find a way to make the files big w/ the frames on them…hmm….anyone know the answer to that?  So if I really love a photo, I’ll edit it how I like it, then put my own frame on it in photoshop.Left = process type 4, Right = process type 2 or sepia?  Can’t remember now…and the font is “pointy”.I used Andrea Burns’ frames here….This is process 2, normal lens, cover open.
Processed the “normal way” through photoshop….{btw….headband made by ME – I went sorta crazy this weekend!}then brought into Toycamera with Process type 2 and “cover open” – kept clicking “cover open” until I got the look I desired.This is a quick collage of different photos from our Charlotte trip.  Used a combo of “Hipstamatic” photos taken from hubby’s iPhone and toycamera applied to point & shoot camera photos.  

The FUN and freeing part for me is they don’t have to be perfect!  I find that as I get more into photography, I “over-think” everything I do!  That means often times NOT taking a photo if I feel the light or situation is not right.  That means I’m MISSING a lot of great moments in our life!  Not any more!  

Try it and let me know what you think!!

I was going through some old photos and thought I would edit them the way I edit now.  Of course these were pretty hard to work with since they were underexposed to start.  But it’s still fun for me to go back to the original files and mess around from time to time.

These were taken September 23, 2004!  Claire – age 5 (awww!)  Nikon D70, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens, “portrait” mode.yeah, the eyes/color is a little over the top…oh well!  haha!

Here’s a couple from 6/13/04 that are some of my favorites.  :-)

Anyway….hopefully I’ll get my blog link working in the next day or two!  Pain in the butt I tell ya!  It’s always something…!

Thinking ahead to spring and I cannot WAIT to get out of the house/studio and start taking photos outside again!  Makes you realize how much you miss it when you are cooped up inside all winter!  uggh!

On another note, I decided to do another “Click and Chat” session for April 15th.  Go to the “availability” tab above for more info and let me know if you want to sign up!  I’ve done two sessions now and they are super fun!  It’s great to see so many people eager to learn more about photography!

when:  september 27, 2010

where:  brooklyn park

what:  finally getting around to posting some of these.  I added a gradient map to the blown out sky….hmmm….still experimenting w/ that.  Fun stuff!

To my clients – THANK YOU for a GREAT year!  I truly appreciate your business!  :-)

To my family – THANK YOU for putting up with me & my annoying photography hobby for yet another year!  I love you!  :-) Who:  My family – Scott (age 43), Jacob (age 16), Claire (age 12), and Me (age 42)

When:  December 31st, 2010

Where:  our basement – Brooklyn Park, MN

What:  gettin’ crazy with the Alien Bees ring flash!  btw….my talented kids took a LOT of these photos!  Settings:  flash at 1/8th power, Nikon D200, Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens, manual, ISO 160, shutter 1/160, f-stop 20.  Fonts – 1942 report and JFRingmaster.  Paper – freebie from www.designerdigitals.com – frames – Andrea Burns & LifeArt Designs.  And I got the 1st two pages of my 2011 book done!  Yeah!  :-)

The puppies were ADORABLE!  They are a Bichon Frise/Shih Tzu mix – their mom called them “Teddy Bear” puppies.  They came all the way from WI (6 hr drive) for a party this weekend.  Since they were only 1 week old, the owners didn’t want to leave them behind – so they all made the trip over! 

Here’s proud mama – Kai – with her babies!  :-)  This is Kai’s first litter…she was very protective of them and needed to know where they were at all times!  This shot was super hard to get!  They kept wanting to curl up into a big ball and tuck their heads into each other.  Jennie is so great at posing!  I loved assisting her!  Claire and Jacy were in heaven!  awww!  It would be so fun to see what they look like in a few weeks!  Too bad they live so far away!  Thanks for having me over Jennie!  I’ll work with you any time I can!   

btw….I just want to say that this whole photography industry can be very competitive and catty.  It’s so nice to have someone like Jennie that is so NOT that way!  I really appreciate that about her (and many of my other photography friends!  You know who you are!    )