COMMON PHOTO PROBLEMS SOLVED
5
Refine the edges
The edges of the branches look a little too jagged and cut-out,
so push the Smooth slider to 5 to soften them a little. Move
Feather up to 0.9 too. We can still see some of the top layer’s
original white sky pixels clinging to the edge of the branches.
To reduce their appearance, tick the Decontaminate Colors box.
Push Amount up to 64%. Tick and untick the Show Original box
to see how the selection has been improved.7
Modify the mask
Zoom in to the distant hill on the left. It has a hint of the original
sky’s overcast colour. Grab the Brush tool. Choose a hard round
tip from the Brush Preset picker in the Tool Options. Set Size to 35
pixels. Click the mask on the top layer and set the Foreground colour to
black by pressing D. Paint over the hill to hide the vestigial sky. If you
need to restore any missing landscape press X to toggle to a white tip
and spray on the mask.6
Crop the border
Set the Output option to New Layer with Layer mask and click
OK. The refined selection is converted into a layer mask. The
black parts of the mask hide the unwanted sky on the top layer to
reveal the sunset from the layer below. Grab the Zoom tool and right
click. Choose Fit On Screen. You’ll notice that the sunset image is
slightly smaller than the landscape, so there are visible transparent
edges. Grab the Crop tool and crop off the edges. Click the tick.8
Match the lighting
The light in the background is quite warm, while the light
in the foreground is cool. To make the landscape look
like it’s part of the sunset scene, choose layer>New Adjustment
Layer>Photo Filter. Click OK. Set the drop-down menu to
Warming Filter (LBA) and push the Density up to 31%. This
helps the lighting in both layers look more similar in colour,
which creates a more convincing composite.