Are rain clouds ruining your image? Will a bright blue sky make it complete? Well adding one's easy with the help of Photoshop CS4.

Software used: Photoshop CS4 Time taken: 10 minutes

Step 1: Use the marquee tool

Open your image and your chosen sky. Select the rectangular marquee tool and draw around your chosen sky and copy it by pressing Ctrl C or by going to Edit>Copy. Then deselect the image (Select>Deselect).

Step 2: Magic wand tool

Now click on the image you want to replace the sky on and with the magic wand tool click around it until it's all selected.

Step 3: Paste your new sky in

Go to Edit>Paste Into and your new sky will replace the old sky.

Step 4: Move the sky

If the sky is in the wrong place use the move tool to place it somewhere else. If it's slightly too small or big go to Edit>Free transform and use the corner anchor points to change the size of the image. Once you're happy hit the enter key on the keyboard.

Step 5: Clone stamp tool

If there appears to be a white edge between your sky and original image make sure you're on the original image layer, select the clone stamp tool, zoom in (Ctrl +) and clone along the edge of the image. A small brush size (10px) is best. This will remove the line and make the transition from land to sky look more natural.



You've read the article, now go take some fantastic images. You can then upload the pictures, plus any advice and suggestions you have into the dedicated Photo Month forum for everyone at ePHOTOzine to enjoy.