Replacing the sky

[Riftvalley]

Hi,
Is there a procedure to replace the sky in an image. I need to brighten a number of images shot on an overcast day. I have tried introducing a new sky and it works very well, by using the pen tool and a bit of patience and a touch of feathering.

Where I come unstuck is where a tree is silhouetted against the sky, I wonder if anyone has a way to make a tree look ok - I cannot imagine trying to trace round all the leaves!!! I did try cutting out the leaf parts and using light and dark cotones for sky and leaves respectively and this is reasonable, but not perfect.

I attach the sort of thing I need to put a better sky behind (the example I have selected has some purple fringing that is not representative).

Kind regards

Martin

[handrawn]

try giving it a stained glass transparency - that will remove all the white, and take it from there ?

[steve.ledger]

I'd try MEHDI eraser.

[Riftvalley]

Many thanks for the swift reply,
I have googled Mehdi eraser and downloaded it I will try it out tomorrow morning.

I have tried the one in the live effects drop down - works great. I will try also the Mehdi Eraser Genuine. This will saves a great deal of work.

Kind regards

Martin

[handrawn]

one of the 2 mehdi erasers comes as a standard live effect in xara - which one to use is maybe a personal thing

as free plugins go they are good

[iamtheblues]

As an alternative to the Mehdi plug-in, after following Steve J's advice re stained glass transparency, I cloned the photo, gave the clone a light blue contone, then selected the structure in the bottom left corner and sliced it out of the clone, exposing the full colour version below. Probably wouldn't work on all photos, I know, but seems to on over-exposed skies. But it did remove most of the purple fringe around the edges of the leaves.
Saludos,
Bob.