What’s wrong with this picture?

So many times when we’re shooting, there are photographic problems that we just can’t fix at the moment. Unattractive lighting, bad backgrounds, the sky, and distracting elements are things we have to deal with all the time. In the case of the picture of tall ships above, the lighting was less than ideal. Overcast and misty weather is a familiar weather condition along the East Coast of the United States, but I didn’t want a bland and boring sky.

The problem in replacing the background was all the rigging on the ships, particularly the tall ship in the foreground. Even Photoshop’s new Sky Replacement feature didn’t work because all of the lines that comprise the ship’s rigging are so fine that many of them disappear when the software attempts to distinguish between the foreground elements and the background.

The rendition of the tall ships above is, to me, a more compelling image. To replace the sky, first I had to find clouds that worked. This means two things: 1) The new sky had to make sense in terms of providing the right kind of light. The soft and diffused light on the seascape could only come from an overcast sky. 2) The new clouds, when blended with the ship, can’t obscure the ship itself. You don’t want to see the clouds through the sails.

In the Layers palette within Photoshop, I used the multiply blend mode. This perfectly blended the new sky with the ship, although it was about one f/ stop too dark. I flattened the layers and then used the dodge tool to carefully lighten the sails.

Finally, I brought the image back into Adobe Camera Raw with Filter > camera raw filter and added clarity for visual impact. §