What's the best (easiest/cheapest/most realistic) way to turn an over-exposed sky more blue in my digital photographs?

June 26, 2012 6:30 AM

What's the best (easiest/cheapest/most realistic) way to turn an over-exposed sky blue in my digital photographs? I know it's possible to use Photoshop to do this, but I don't own that software, and I'd rather not buy it if there's a cheaper, easier way to do this. I do use iPhoto, but I couldn't find a way to do it with that. Importantly - I'm hoping to find a solution that makes this easy enough to do for LOTs of photos. I would consider something like Aperture or Lightroom if that's a good option.

Some details...

I use iPhoto, but I'm very novice (I wouldn't be surprised to discover that I can do it with that tool, but I have no idea how...).

I have Pixelmator, but haven't been able to figure out how to do it with that tool either (I've seen detailed tutorials that involve creating additional layers with blue skies, then masking regions in your original photographs, but that's too much work to do for more than a handful of photographs).

I'd definitely consider purchasing Aperture, Lightroom, or Photoshop Elements if they make this easy, but Photoshop ($699) is not in my budget.

I'm not looking for perfection - I don't need to replace a white sky with cerulean blue and big puffy white cumulus clouds - I'm just hoping for something that adds a little more color and vibrancy to photos of friends and family that I take outdoors.

I remember seeing a demo of iPhoto on iPad that did something like this, but I'm really hoping to find desktop software (I love my iPad, but for reading and browsing only; it's too much of a hassle to work it into my photo flow - organizing, uploading, backing up, etc...)

Thanks in advance!

posted by stuehler to Computers & Internet (18 answers total)

I would approach this from another angle - learn how to close down the aperture of the iris of your camera when actually taking photos, so you can bring down the exposure values of your skies in-camera - it'a a LOT easier to add a little brightness to your subjects in a batch-approach, than to try and add density back into blown-out skies. The Shadows/Highlights tonal tool in Photoshop is built for situations like this, and Elements does indeed have it.
posted by dbiedny at 6:38 AM on June 26, 2012

dbiedny,

Thanks for your response!

I should have mentioned this in my original question... I'm taking photos with an iPhone 4. So, I guess it's possible to "close down the aperture of the iris" - I don't even know what that means - I usually just point and shoot. But, you've at least given me something else to Google...
posted by stuehler at 6:43 AM on June 26, 2012

Hope this isn't considered "not answering the question" but as above, the only real solution is to have this happen in the first place: the sky being blown out (white) means that no useful information got recorded in that space, so there's no way to get it back. The picture was overexposed.

If you only have a basic camera / camera phone and no access to manual controls, one thing you can do is just go ahead and assume that for very bright outdoor shots your camera is going to overexpose it. Just go to the EV setting on your camera and set it to -1 or -2 and snap your photo. Doesn't matter how the device achieves it - by changing the shutter speed, aperture, or ISO... you will get your blue skies back.
posted by xdvesper at 6:44 AM on June 26, 2012

I use Lightroom, but the same principles would work equally for iPhoto and Aperture.

Depending on what else is in your picture, you can do a couple of things. An easy correction is to increase saturation on the blue channel and decrease luminance (i.e., darken) on blue, too. In Lightroom, these are just two sliders in the control panel. However, this is a global edit, and will saturate and darken ALL the blue in the photo.

The other down and dirty trick is to add a gradient from the top of the image. The gradient operates as a "mask" to apply the post processing in only a particular area of the image. As the effect moves down the gradient mask, it becomes less pronounced. If you add a gradient from the top, you can darken the image and boost saturation that way too.

But as the other posters have noted, where JPGs are overexposed, there is often no data to recover--so darkening the sky will just go from white to pure gray, and boosting blue will do nothing--there is no "blue"--just pure 100% white.

Lightroom has a free trial, and iPhoto is free; I wouldn't pay any money to work on overexposed iPhone photos unless you were getting some good results with your edits.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 6:48 AM on June 26, 2012

OK, the iPhone note is important - you want to learn how to tap the sky when you're in the built-in Camera app, this sets the exposure with the sky in mind. Also, you'll want a better camera app, I really tend to like Top Camera.
posted by dbiedny at 6:49 AM on June 26, 2012

If you're using an iPhone! I recommend a camera app like Camera+ or Camera awesome.

While shooting, this is how it works on Camera+: tap to focus and then hold down your finger. Tap with a second finger on the blue sky to light meter. Basically this will help you control the exposure so that the skies aren't blown out. Afterwards, you can use some of the built in tools to manipulate the shot, such as applying the Clarity filter, which will keep the blue sky, but also light up the parts of the photo that might be too dark.

You have much more control with a third party camera app than the built in camera. The built in camera basically reads the light situation based upon where it's also focusing. But you might not always want this to be the case.
posted by kathryn at 6:52 AM on June 26, 2012

Actually, kathryn, the built-in Camera app does indeed use the tap location to set exposure as well as focus, but I do agree that a third-party app is a no-brainer.
posted by dbiedny at 6:57 AM on June 26, 2012

Here is a $25 polarizing filter for the iPhone.
posted by Currer Belfry at 7:05 AM on June 26, 2012

Thirding Camera+ or Camera awesome for modifying the existing over-exposures.
posted by samsara at 7:25 AM on June 26, 2012

You want a polarizing filter.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 7:30 AM on June 26, 2012

You can also take the photo in HDR mode on the iPhone. This take an under, an over, and a normal exposure and averages them out. I don't know exactly how it works, but it works fairly well with the exact issue you are having.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:39 AM on June 26, 2012

dbiedny, can you use the built in Camera app to set focus in a different place than the exposure? I'm assuming the OP will want to set focus on a family member's face, and then set the exposure based off the blue sky. Then lighten the shadows, to get the desired effect.
posted by kathryn at 7:48 AM on June 26, 2012

This is a photo I took and corrected with camera+. It's not free, but I use it all the time.
posted by rtha at 8:33 AM on June 26, 2012

There are several great suggestions in here. I'm definitely going to try camera+ for any new photos.

But no suggestions yet for how to improve my EXISTING photos.

To be more specific - it's not so much that I'm looking to "recover" lost data (e.g., due to overexposure). Instead, I'm just as happy *replacing* the white-ish gray with a natural looking shade of blue that's in fact totally artificial, with a few smart filters or adjustments (that ideally aren't applied globally...)
posted by stuehler at 1:19 PM on June 26, 2012

It sounds like you want an image editor with a paint bucket, preferably one with adjustable tolerance and anti-aliasing. Assuming you are on a Mac, Photoshop Elements would definitely work, or you could go shareware with GraphicConverter, Pixelmator, etc.
posted by hyperizer at 2:04 PM on June 26, 2012

How to fix an overexposed sky in Photoshop Elements
How to replace an over exposed sky in Elements

The success of the second method will depend upon how complicated your image is. The first one seems simpler but could look odd if, say, it's a person directly against the sky.

Good luck!
posted by kathryn at 2:54 PM on June 26, 2012

The short answer to this, if you want to end up with reasonably "real" looking pictures, is that it's not possible with current technology, unless you want to deal with each photo on an image by image basis.
posted by imjustsaying at 3:50 PM on June 26, 2012

The Camera+ suggestion IS for existing photos. It will allow you to modify photos already taken that are still on your iPhone.
posted by samsara at 5:40 AM on June 28, 2012