How to replace a sky in Adobe Photoshop.

How to replace a sky in Adobe Photoshop. 

with Kendall Plant

Give a landscape a whole new vibe — fast — with this tip from creative director Kendall Plant.


  1. Start with a selection.

    Use the Rectangular Marquee tool to make a rough selection around the sky. Then press Control+C (Windows) or Command+C (macOS) to copy it. Then create a new file (File > New) and use Control+V or Command+V to paste the layer.
    Night shot of a mountain scene shows top half is selected by Rectangular marquee. Right: Sky portion of image is on its own layer.

  2. Take the stars for a spin.

    An action includes a series of changes that can be made to an image with the click of a button. With the pasted sky layer selected, open the Actions panel (Window > Actions) and click the flyout menu. Choose the Star Trails Rotation action from the Stars Trails folder and click Play. Then save the file to your device as a JPEG.
    Star Trails Rotation and Play button are selected from the Actions panel. The stars now display in a circular, streaked pattern.

  3. Change the sky.

    Return to the original image and choose Edit > Sky Replacement. Click the Sky thumbnail, and then click the + button to import the sky image file you just saved.
    Edit > Sky Replacement menu selected and the plus button and new spiral star sky thumbnail is highlighted in the Sky Replacement panel.

  4. Fine-tune it.

    Adjust the settings to finesse the results and click OK. Now that you have your new sky, you can use it in other compositions too.
    Shift Edge value is -33 and Fade Edge is 0. The Sky in the nighttime landscape shows the spiral starry sky behind the mountain.

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