Just started doing some photography. As I don't have filters (+ i'm not that skilled yet) a lot of my images did not come out as I wished them. So I decided to throw a few into PS.7 & muck about. I'm posting both the original photo the modified photo. I wanted to create a little bit of a fairytale look & think i've got the foreground sorted. However, in the process of doing this the sky has become very pale. The first bit of help I need is on how to add colour to the sky. I tried to place a diff sky layer from a saved image in the background, but ran into the obvious problem on how to select the trees & branches so that it would not lie over them. I have tried many ways, but alas, no success. There must be a way with alpha selections or 'blend if grey', but these areas are in the wilderness of my ignorance. Any ideas? the second bit is the ray of light. i want to have motes of dust, etc floating in it, to give it more dimension & realism. I think i have to do this by loading a texture as an alpha channel. is this right. if it is, how do i do it? Thanks in advance. Any help would be greatly appreciated:o)

Here is what I have done so far:

Attached Link: http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/Perry/luce/main.html

try the attached URL. an awesome plugin. it's free and it's one of my favourites. what it achieves can be done in photoshop too, but this is simpler ;-) have fun. post your final image for us to see. palash

There is also another plugin that might be of interest...
Aurora from Digital Elements. It's not free but they do provide a demo so you can see if this is what your looking for.

:)
retrocity

Cheers guys - i'll check 'em out:o)

If I understand your objectives correctly, these are really 'masking/selection problems' to be solved. To select the sky (and not the trees) you can use the 'Color Range' selection. Select a piece of the sky and adjust the slider until it looks like you got about what you want. You will pick up a few stray pieces in the roof and windows but you can paint them out in Quick Mask mode. Then expand the selection by a pixel or two, depending on the resoluiton of your image,to get rid of the "fringe". The attached image was created from your upload. I'm sure your original is a higher res image and if so your results should look better than mine. To create the rays you can use the same selection (save it as an alpha channel once you make it) and simply (okay, it may not be simple) paint away where you dont want the rays in Quick Mask (after you dup the selection so you don't screw up the original). Then just paint in your rays. If I have misunderstood what your are trying to accomplish I apoligize.

no - that'as pretty much one of the questions i had - thanks very much for your reply - i think that has sorted the prob out. i'll post once i've finished:o)

Just in case if you aren't there yet, you can also start by selecting the trees and later invert that selection. By manipulating alpha channels with a selection like that (like, adjusting the levels and painting out unwanted parts that you don't want selected) you can get away from a look that flows over borders that are not realistically. Good luck!

As to me I found the Color Range selection pretty rude... if I want to change a color on some pixels of a different color, I go to Adjustments Replase Color. It makes wonders to a tender blending if needed. In this case I would exclude a house first, then picking up the color I need and go to that screen of Replace Color to discover what is all about :-)

well, chaps - i've done a few pictures now. annoyingly, the house is proving quite difficult. but i will persevere.

here are the other ones i posted:
thanks for the selection process tip - it made it much easier:o)

http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=567933&Start=1&Artist=georgedvore&ByArtist=Yes

http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=568408&Start=1&Artist=georgedvore&ByArtist=Yes

http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=579412&Start=1&Artist=georgedvore&ByArtist=Yes

i didn't go for the plugins, in the end to create the ray of light, as i found an excellent tute which covered it pretty well:
tute = http://www.apple.com/creative/resources/rays/index.html

image made:
http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=568874&Start=1&Artist=georgedvore&ByArtist=Yes

hope you like 'em:o)