How to Replace Complex Skies in Photos Using Photoshop

Selecting and replacing a complicated sky in an image often results in imperfections. Try this Photoshop method to make a perfect selection.

January 19, 2023 · 1 min · 53 words · Mary Huynh

Replacing a complex sky isn’t always easy.

We’ll fix this problem and replace the sky in the next step.

you might alsouse Channels to make difficult selections in Photoshop.

Cover of autumnal treetops and sky

Below is the result after brushing the pixels back in.

If you’d rather try another program, you could alsoreplace the sky using Luminar Neo.

Step 1 Duplicate background layer

Step 2 Click on the Channels tab

Step 4 Duplicate Blue channel

Step 5 Ctrl + L for Levels

Step 6 Select Sky

Step 7 Load Selection

Step 8 Select Inverse

Step 10 Make Layer 1 active

Step 11 Add a layer mask

Original layer plus selected sky layer

Background layer turned off

Step 1 Make the Background layer active

Step 2 Create Solid Color adjustment

Step 3 Choose Color

Step 4 Unlock Backgorund layer

Step 5 Drag Layer 0 to the top

Step 6 Create inverted mask

Step 7 Soft Round Brush

Step 8 Brush back in details

End result of sky replacement

Change the color again