#11. Creating dramatic skies.

Give your skies more punch with a simple Photoshop layer effect.

While reading the Flickr technique forums a came across a brief discussion on getting perfect blue skies. A lot of feedback involves using a circular polarising filter over the lens to a darkness and depth, but if you want to intensify the sky on an existing photo then user Arkku suggests:

"While not a substitute for a polarizer, you can also simulate the effect by selecting the sky and copying it onto another layer, then setting the mode to "multiply" or "color burn". The sky darkness can then be adjusted by the layer opacity. This has the advantage that it works regardless of colour differences in the sky (clouds, etc).

Conclusion
Once again, a very easy effect to apply. Here I have worked on the contrast and amplified the blue colour effect. In this photo it is really only used for demonstrative purposes, I feel as though it distracts too much from the silhouettes in the foreground.

About The Photo
Taken at Piha Beach, near Auckland City in New Zealand.