New Skies

11/15/20

    Adobe just came out with a new version of Photoshop - 2021. It has a lot of new features, primarily in the artificial intelligence area, which they call Sensei. On of the new features is a somewhat automatic sky replacement. 

    I thought I’d like to try it, so I rummaged trough my photographs and found a Sandhill Crane that had walked out on the boardwalk with me at Kensington Nature Center. The wood structure and fencing, while mostly blurred, still showed, so I thought I'd add one of my Anchor Bay skies behind him. Turns out the new sky replacement sensei doesn't recognize skies without trees or maybe horizons (or doesn't know that even cranes have backgrounds  ;-). so I did this one the old fashioned way. My second try was with my photo of Island Park in Eaton Rapids. Sensei liked this one much better. It took me a while to figure out adding a reflection of the sky ruined my sky replacement. I did duplicate layer three times before I noticed there was a link icon . . . duh! Unlinking it let me transform the copy without changing the original. Whew!

    The original files & skies are shown below. I used and Adobe sky for the sky replacement filter for the Park, but the rest of the photos are mine. It’s clear on the island photo what camera raw adjustments can optimize a photo.

    Take care and stay well.