How to Replace Sky in Photoshop (2 Ways)

This guide will give you the easiest ways to replace a sky in Photoshop.

I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop for many years, and I often need to replace backgrounds, including the sky.

Replacing the sky in photos is an easy way to completely transform their ambiance and mood.

Let’s dive into the tutorial.

How to Replace Sky in Photoshop in 3 Steps

You can use this tutorial if you wish to swap a sky with another one or replace it with an entirely different background.

You might want to change the background sky of a photo because it’s too dull or doesn’t match the theme of the photo.

Maybe you have a photo of everyone smiling; it’s a birthday or a joyous occasion.

However, the grey clouds behind the group of people give the photo a dark, moody atmosphere.

The best solution to change the photo’s mood is to swap the bleak grey sky for a bright blue sky, complete with puffy white clouds.

Possibly, you have landscape photos of wild sweeping mountain ranges, and you wish to amp up the dramatic effect with a sunset sky. Why not!

On other occasions, you might want to replace a photo’s sky with an entirely different background.

For example, if you’re making a promotional band poster and want the background to be funky ’60s psychedelic swirls.

So, let’s learn how.

Option 1 – Using Photoshops AI Sky Replacement

The first option we will run through is how to replace a sky using Photoshop’s Sky Replacement tool.

This tool has been available in Photoshop since 2021.

Step 1 – Open the Image

Head to the main menu bar to open an image and select File > Open.

Alternatively, hold Command (for Macs) or Ctrl (for Windows) and hit O.

A dialogue window will open. Locate your image, select it, and click Open.

Step 2 – Create a Selection of the Sky

Head to the top menu bar and click Select.

In the drop-down menu that opens, click Sky.

Once clicked, Photoshop will use AI to discern all areas of the sky.

Little lines, looking like marching ants, will appear surrounding the outline of the sky.

The entire sky should now be selected.

The image we are using above of the silhouette of the raven and tree branches has some complex, intricate edges.

When there are complex edges, sometimes Photoshop might not make a completely accurate selection.

Don’t worry if this has happened to your image; we’ll show you how to fix this later.

Step 3 – Replace the Sky

To replace the sky, head to Edit in the top menu bar, and from the drop-down menu, select Sky Replacement.

Once selected, the Sky Replacement panel will open.

The panel has a number of sliders, which can be used to adjust the sky.

In the bottom left corner of the panel, you will find a box beside Preview.

Tick this box to see a live preview of the edits in your canvas workspace.

At the top of the panel is a small image of a sky.

Click the arrow beside the sky image to select a sky from Photoshop’s library.

A new panel will open containing Photoshop’s library of sky images.

By default, there will be three folders: Blue Skies, Spectacular, and Sunsets.

Click on the arrow beside the folder to view the selection inside.

To replace the current sky with a new one, simply click on the sky you wish to use.

A blue line will surround the selected sky, and a preview will be displayed in your canvas workspace.

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Step 4 – Add a Sky Image to Photoshop

If you are unhappy with the selection of sky images available, you can import your own sky photo.

To do this, head to the bottom of the Sky library. Here, you will find three icons: a folder icon, a square icon, and a bin icon.

Click the Add Image button – the square icon with a plus symbol inside.

A dialogue window will appear. Locate the sky image you wish to upload and click Open.

Your sky image will now be added to Photohsop’s sky library.

You can create a new library folder for your collection of sky photos.

To do this, simply click the folder icon and add a name for the folder. Then, drag any uploaded sky images into the folder.

When you wish to delete background sky images or folders, drag them into the trash.

Underneath the three icons, you’ll find a sliding bar. Slide this bar to alter the size of the sky.

Slide to the right to increase the size of the sky or left to decrease it.

Step 5 – Sky Adjustments

Once you’ve replaced the sky, you can use the Sky Adjustment sliders to fine-tune the sky to match its foreground.

Click on the arrow beside Sky Adjustment to access the adjustment sliders.

Here, you will find three sliders: Brightness, Temperature, and Scale.

Beneath the Sky Adjustment sliders, you will find a checkbox labeled Flip.

Tick this box if you wish to Flip the sky image.

When you adjust the sliders, you will see a live preview in the canvas workspace.

As you can see below, we have decreased the brightness and temperature of the sky replacement.

This is to match the area of the sky left behind the twigs.

Removing the area of the sky behind the twigs will prove time-consuming as the edges of the twigs do not have sharp lines.

So, instead of removing the sky area, we have merged it with its new background.

Below the Sky Adjustment Sliders, you’ll find the Foreground Adjustment sliders.

Use these to adjust the foreground.

Above the Sky Adjustment sliders are two more sliders, Shift Edge and Fade Edge.

Adjusting these sliders will alter the selected area.

The Shift Edge will literally shift the edge of the active selection.

Move the slider to the right to contract the edges of the selected area, or move the slider to the left to expand the edges outwards.

The two images below demonstrate the effect the Shift Edge has on the selected area.

In the first, the Shift Edge is set to + 100, and the edges contract so much that the tree’s twigs are no longer visible.

Below, the Shift Edge was decreased to -100 and the foreground area was expanded past the line of marching ants.

The Fade Edge slider will sharpen or fade the edges of the foreground.

Move the slider to the right to make the edges sharper and to the left to blur the edges.

Step 6 – Save the Sky Adjustments

When you are satisfied with the adjustments, head to the bottom of the Sky Replacement panel.

Here you’ll find the output options. You can output the adjustments as New Layers or Duplicate Layers.

Select New Layers and hit OK.

The Sky Replacement panel will disappear, and a Sky Replacement folder will appear in the Layers panel.

Open the folder to view the sky edits.

Each edit you made in the Sky Replacement panel will be displayed as a separate layer.

In this case, the Brightness and Temperature adjustments have been saved as Adjustment layers.

One of the bonuses to using the Sky Replacement tool is that you can return to this folder to adjust any edits you made.

Step 7 – Save the Image

When you have finished editing, you can save your image.

Head to the top menu bar and select Save a Copy.

The Save a Copy dialogue window will open. Enter a name for the image and select the location you want to save it to.

Beside Format, select JPEG, then hit Save.

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Option 2 – Replace Sky Using Generative Fill

If you don’t find a sky that suits your image in Photoshop’s sky library, you can upload your own sky photo.

Another option is to use Photoshop’s AI to generate a sky replacement.

You can prompt Photoshop’s AI with a few words to create a sunrise sky, a pink clouded sky, or a sky with strips of orange.

If you want to get funky and creative, you can write a prompt to create a psychedelic sky with swirling clouds. Don’t let reality hold you back.

The great thing about using Photoshop’s AI is that Photoshop will consider and match the new sky with the foreground’s tones and hues.

Thus, you won’t need to adjust foreground and background color tones.

Plus, AI will generate not one but three options.

So here’s how to replace the sky using Photoshop’s AI.

Step 1 – Open Image

The first step is to open the image in Photoshop (Beta). Photoshop (Beta) has the latest AI Photoshop features, including Generative Fill.

Step 2 – Select Sky

With your image open in Photoshop, head to the main menu bar and click Select > Sky.

Photoshop will take a few moments to create an active selection of the sky.

When Photoshop has finished, the sky will be surrounded by marching ants.

If this is not a concise selection, don’t worry. We show you how to fix this later.

Step 3 – Open Generative Fill

When the active selection has been created, the Contextual Task Bar will appear below the selection.

Click on the Generative Fill button.

The Generative Fill bar will open.

Enter a prompt, and make sure the prompt is concise if you want an exact result.

For this tutorial, we have entered “Wild sunset”. We want to amplify the photo’s natural drama by adding vivid sunset sky colors.

“Wild sunset” is not very specific. To be more precise, we could enter “Wild pink sunset with orange clouds.”

Once you’ve entered a prompt, click the Generate button.

A dialogue window will appear as Photoshop generates the new background.

If the Contextual Task Bar doesn’t appear, you can access Generative Fill in the drop-down menu under Edit.

But if you want to turn the Contextual Task Bar on for future use, head to the top menu bar and click on Windows.

A drop-down menu will open. Scroll down until you locate Contextual Task Bar, and click it so that a tick appears in the panel beside it.

Step 4 – Select a Sunset

Generative Fill will create three versions from your prompt.

To view each of the three variations, open the Properties panel. Click a variation, and it will be displayed in the canvas workspace.

If you’re unhappy with the three variations, you can regenerate a new sunset.

Delete the original prompt and start again.

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Step 5 – Check for Errors

Adobe Photostop’s AI is amazing, but it isn’t flawless. Therefore, zooming in to check for errors is a must.

Otherwise, you will be sorely disappointed when you receive your prints and find an error with the selection or the generated background.

Using the Zoom tool, you can enlarge the image to scan the edits closely.

When we zoomed in on the lady, we found that the selection was inaccurate. It had removed parts of her face and limbs.

Step 6 – Correct Errors

The Generative Fill tool creates a Layer Mask of the selection. This makes it easy to fix any selection errors.

To adjust the selection, head to the Layers panel and click on the Generative Fills layer mask thumbnail.

Once you have clicked the thumbnail, head to the Opacity box above the layer.

Here you can decrease the opacity of the layer to roughly 60%.

By doing this, you will be able to see both the new sunset layer and the original background layer.

In the canvas workspace, an editing bar will appear. Depending on the edit you need to make, you can select “Subtract from mask” or “Add to mask.”

For this image, we need to subtract from the layer mask, so we will click “Subtract from mask.”

Using your cursor, draw on the canvas workspace to remove the excess sunset layer.

When you are editing, you can alternate between the Subtract and Add to mask buttons.

When we’ve finished editing, we increase the opacity of the layer mask back to 100%.

Now we just have to repeat the process to fix the lady’s legs, and we’ll have a perfect sunset in our image.

We tried different prompts to see how other colored sunsets would look.

Below are the results we achieved when we prompted ‘Purple Sunset with Orange Clouds’ and ‘Rainbow Swirling Clouds.’

Photoshop didn’t create swirling rainbow clouds, but it did add a rainbow.

When the selection is perfect, you can swap it out as often as you like until you find the most awesome sunset.

Now, you have all the tools you need to replace skies in your photos using Photoshop.

We hope you found this tutorial useful and will use it to swap many skies to make your photos more atmospheric or dynamic.

If you liked this tutorial, we are sure you will also like – How to use Photoshop Actions (Plus Create Your Own).

Have fun editing.

FAQs

Why is sky replacement greyed out in Photoshop?

When the Sky Replacement is greyed out in Photoshop, it signifies that you can not access the tool.

There are a few reasons this could be the case. The most common reason is that you don’t have an active selection.

The other is because you don’t have a layer selected. Check if either of these is the case and try again.

How do you make the sky bluer in Photoshop?

To make the sky bluer in Photoshop, you can use Selective Color.

Head to the main menu bar and select Image > Adjustments > Selective Color.

The Selective Color dialogue window will open; from the drop-down box beside Colors, select Blues.

Adjust the Blue color sliders to alter the blue colors in your image.

Another option is to use the Sky Replacement tool and replace the sky with a bluer sky.

How do I add new skies to Photoshop sky replacement?

You can add a new sky to Photoshop’s Sky Replacement library by uploading it to Photoshop.

When the Sky Replacement panel is open, click on the arrow beside the sky image at the top of the panel.

Underneath the sky folders, you will find the Add Sky button, a square with a plus icon.

Click on this, and you will find the option to upload a sky.

How do you add more sky in Photoshop?

You can add more sky in Photoshop using the Content Aware Fill tool.