The Landscape Photography Book

Cloud Replacement, Technique #2

Here’s another technique to try. Well, it’s kinda 1 1/2 techniques. Maybe two. I dunno, but here goes: (1) Copy-and-paste the good clouds over the bald sky in your original image. Then, go to the Layers panel and double-click on the cloud layer to bring up the Blending Options in the Layer Style dialog. Near the bottom, you’ll see the Blend If sliders, and we’re going to use those two sliders to find a nice blend. But, before you just start dragging sliders around, press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt) key and, as you drag a slider, it splits the slider knob in half, giving you a much smoother transition. Don’t drag ...