Bad Hair Day

[Singletracklovr]

We had a spring rain/snow storm.
Thought I would check on the Owls. I expected to find a parent sitting on the nest with wings spread to protect the baby Owls.
That was not the case. I found 3 very wet babies and a very damp adult.

Sorry for the blown sky I had to over expose to get the right exposure on the subject. It was a very dark gray day the snow had just stopped.

[CaraRose]

Great shots, Bob! The babies are getting really brown too!

[scott-devon]

Great shots, that second one made me laugh.. Looks like me on "a morning after..."

[paulnj]

too funny

[mn shutterbug]

Cool captures.

[Singletracklovr]

Great shots, that second one made me laugh.. Looks like me on "a morning after..."

Thanks everyone, I was hoping shot 2 would bring a smile.

I sure wish I could figure out how to PP the sky to make it more like what my minds eye remembers. When I try I get a strange halo around the Owl.

Thanks for looking.

[ksbryan0]

Hey Bob, I enjoyed the images as well. Love the moussed hair look! Hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of putting an overcast grey sky behind them. Not the best job, and I am sure there are others here more qualified, but I am working on an ancient version of PS tonight, instead of PSE 8 which I know a little better.

[Singletracklovr]

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the comments.

There's never a problem with editing my photos, no ego to bruise here.
Could you share your steps in PS to darken the sky? My attempts have failed.
I have about 30 overblown sky shots and would love to fix them.

On a side note, had to cancel my Fruita Fattire trip this weekend.
Weather has turned the bike trails to mud.

[Grandpaw]

Bob, this is your picture with one of my skies with it. Not what it looked like the day you were there but it isn't blown out, Jeff

[ksbryan0]

Bob, this is what I did using PS5.0, which is about 15 years old!
1-Select-Color Range and click on the blown out sky
2-Select-Inverse (to get everything but the sky)
3-File-New (to create an identical size image file)
4-Adjust the color/texture of the background in the new file
5-Copy the selection from the original file, and paste it into the new file
6-I also selected each of the eyes and lightened them a bit
7-Flatten the image and save the new file

I know there is an easier way, but I haven't used my dinosaur version of PS for awhile, and I don't have PSE8 this week (which makes this kind of change even easier).

[Singletracklovr]

Hi Jeff, Wow that looks sweet. You are pretty good with sky replacement. Nicely done. Would you share your PP steps?

Hi Ken,

Bob, this is what I did using PS5.0, which is about 15 years old!
1-Select-Color Range and click on the blown out sky
2-Select-Inverse (to get everything but the sky)
3-File-New (to create an identical size image file)
4-Adjust the color/texture of the background in the new file
5-Copy the selection from the original file, and paste it into the new file
6-I also selected each of the eyes and lightened them a bit
7-Flatten the image and save the new file

I know there is an easier way, but I haven't used my dinosaur version of PS for awhile, and I don't have PSE8 this week (which makes this kind of change even easier).

Thank you. I use PS 7 so I believe I have all these tools. I'll give it a try.

[Grandpaw]

I selected your picture and opened it up in PhotoShop

Go to select menu and click on color range

put eye dropper on section of sky and adjust fuzziness and range to get the parts you want to replace and click OK. This will show you the area you will be working with

pull up another picture with a sky that you like

Click on the clone tool and get some of the sky you want to use

go back to you first picture and move your pointer across the original picture to replace the sky

make adjustments such as contrast, color, brightness or whatever else you want so it will go with the original and then save it.

I'm sure there are better ways to do this by someone with more experience but this is how I did it. On nice pretty days when the sky looks great I take pictures of just the sky and clouds with nothing else in the photo so when something like this comes up I can go to my file marked "clouds" and pick the type of sky I would like to have to replace the bad one.

Obviously the more time and care you take the better the end results will be. I didn't spend much time on my example. Hope this gives you some idea how I did it. If you have any questions I may help answer please ask, Jeff

[Singletracklovr]

I selected your picture and opened it up in PhotoShop

Go to select menu and click on color range

put eye dropper on section of sky and adjust fuzziness and range to get the parts you want to replace and click OK. This will show you the area you will be working with

pull up another picture with a sky that you like

Click on the clone tool and get some of the sky you want to use

go back to you first picture and move your pointer across the original picture to replace the sky

make adjustments such as contrast, color, brightness or whatever else you want so it will go with the original and then save it.

I'm sure there are better ways to do this by someone with more experience but this is how I did it. On nice pretty days when the sky looks great I take pictures of just the sky and clouds with nothing else in the photo so when something like this comes up I can go to my file marked "clouds" and pick the type of sky I would like to have to replace the bad one.

Obviously the more time and care you take the better the end results will be. I didn't spend much time on my example. Hope this gives you some idea how I did it. If you have any questions I may help answer please ask, Jeff

Thank you Jeff, I really do appreciate your time and expertise. I will give this a try.