Museum of Man

[Adamo]

This is a shot I took of the Museum of Man in San Diego. It was my first attempt at adding clouds using photoshop. The original was a plain blue sky. Thoughts on how realistic or not it looks?

[Greg McCary]

I think the white areas are just blown out. You might be better off just shooting a random sky shot with clouds and layer it in.

[Adamo]

Actually, the clouds are a shot I took. I will see what I can do about the "blown out areas"

[randimal]

I like it. Nice ambiance.

[llewpics]

I did not think, when I first saw it, that it was something added at a later time ...so, I think it works. If the cloud highlights were not blown, it would be great. Did you shoot them in RAW or JPG? If JPG, chances are, you may have to try some other clouds to get rid of that ...

[Greg McCary]

Actually, the clouds are a shot I took. I will see what I can do about the "blown out areas"

Sorry, I thought you made the sky from scratch. It is a good relpacement other than the blown areas.

[hminx]

Its not bad but the lighting on the tower doesn't quite match the angle of the sun . With the sun that bright I think the right hand side of the tower should be better lit. Using a sky scape with the sun in a similar position to the main photo really helps.

[Overbeyond]

It all looks fine and it is not obvious, to me anyway, that the sky was added. Sometimes plain skies can be ok too as it puts all the emphasis on the building; the subject. It's a good composition though overall with nice detail on the buildings.

[armando_m]

good job replacing the sky, but agree the blown white areas are not adding to the image

the tower is leaning to the right

[Adamo]

Thank you everyone for your comments! I really like the shot, considering I took it from a moving gondola at the Zoo. The stark white background bugged me in the original so I looked through some of my shots and found a sky I thought would work. Plus I wanted to learn how to do it.

[gahspidy]

Adamo, very nice work adding the sky.You have a good knack it appears. I think I would not have any worries letting you do my Root Canal work! ;)

I agree the sky has blowout which is not a terrible thing but as long as your compositing new sky might as well be a very good sky then.

I agree with Tom in that I never thought blank skies were always a bad thing. Sometimes especially with a subject like this Museum, a blank sky can add a stark and powerful setting for a subject.

I do like your photograph here and it looks like it can be quite attractive with a nice cloudy sky as you have
here its just that with this sky those bright blown out areas pull my eye away from the subject.

Very nice work and even with the critiques brought up here its a fine image to be proud of.

Thanks

[GB1]

Not bad at all, but I'm surprised nobody mentioned how the tower seems to be tilting to the right (clockwise). The background bright cloud lining creates a surreal, magical feeling.

G