a little help please.

[seanmc]

Hi, So i got this picture and a few others like it with the same story line, the end product is going to be a calender for my company, (hince the big gold bus) i get a few days to shoot and right now in hawaii every day is so overcast. it makes for some real nice soft light but ruins pictures where i would like some nice blue skies. can anyone help me save this picture from my recent shoot, i may not get another chance to re-do it. And if anyone asks, i did have to scale the side of this cliff to get high enough for this angle.

[ramblinray]

If you have Photoshop, you can add in the blue skies with a layer. Tweaking the contrast and such should make it look fine. Last time I edited a photo for someone, it created a huge file when saved as a .psd so I hesitate doing that again as sending a hundred megabyte file is a royal pain. If you don't have post processing software, pray for sunshine and then re-shoot when it comes.

[seanmc]

sorry, I do have photoshop and I have a descent working knowledge of it, but not sure how to keep it looking natural

[LonestarMan]

Here is a quick go at it using a separate picture of a blue sky on a layer, the extract filter and a little blur on the edge. More work would be required for a higher resolution image. Is this what you are looking for?

I may have softened the edge too much, but you get the idea.

[seanmc]

that does look a lot better Todd,
I it was very difficult to get this picture cause of the weather, not knowing the exact time the bus was going to pass by, cause this was not staged, I knew the route the bus was going to be on and just had to find a good location to to catch him at. Not to mentioned it wasn't easy to get on top of the rocks, behind me is about three feet of flat rock and then about 40 to 60 feet straight down into more rocks and ocean.

[Patti Edens]

If you do change the sky, you probably should also add a little contrast and brightness to the rest of the photo to make it look a little brighter and glary as it would be in bright sunshine.

Oh, and I meant to mention...that is a cool photo! Great job on getting to the right place at the right time!

Something like this...

[LonestarMan]

I agree with Patti, I think it should be brightened too.

[seanmc]

ok how'd i do?

[ramblinray]

Looks pretty good. Might want to clone back in the center and side stripes to make it look totally real. Nice job removing the extra vehicles. The sky and overall brightness looks pretty realistic. I thinks it's pretty much a keeper.

[LonestarMan]

Hey Sean, Looks pretty good. Do clone in the center strip. Use a new layer and check "Sample All Layers" Now you will have an object that you can transformed to produce the curve.

I still notice some repeating patterns along the road and guard rail after you cloned out the cars. I would work these out a little more. You did a good job with that.
While your at it. Clean up all the little rocks and discolorations along the highway near the bus, anything that would take attention away from the subject. Just to make it more perfect.

There is a white spot in the rocks top left that needs to go.

Bump the saturation a little an your done!

Way to go.

[Patti Edens]

Yep, what Todd said.

Great shot! I think the company will be very happy with this one.