Adding cloud to a picture

Question

Hi,
I am new to photo shop 9 elements and am getting on with it quite well. However I have some pictures of aircraft with a white sky back ground. I therefore would like to add cloud. I cannot seem to grasp how to do this.
Can anyone please help?
Pete

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks Bill will give it a try.
Just bean out on Salisbury Plain to-day taking action pictures of Apache helicopters in the live firing area. Will re having a break so will give what you suggested a try.
Again thank you for your help, I will let you know the results.
Pete
From: Bill Hunt <[email protected]>
To: peter bryant <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, 1 August 2011, 16:26
Subject: Adding cloud to a picture
Ah, thank you for the clarification.
Now, this is for Photoshop, and may, or may not work in PSElements (I just do not know the full capabilities and limitations of that program), so you may need to "read between the lines," and interpolate to PSElements.
1. In PS (probably the same here in PSE), Open both your original Image, with the airplane, and "cloud" Image. Select an area around your "cloud" including some sky. I would probably use the Lasso for this Selection, and just do it roughly, and by eye. I would also set the Feather to about 3 - 5 pixels to soften the Selection. We will clean up later, and soften even more, so do not worry if the Selection around the cloud is rough. No since getting critical at this point. Copy (CtrlC on the PC), and then go to the "airplane" Image. Paste that cloud into it (CtrlV on the PC).
2. Here is where my lack of knowledge of PSE will show, so you may need to do things a bit differently in that program. Now you have two Layers in the airplane Image, the Background and the "cloud" Layer, which wil be named Layer 1 (can be changed to "Cloud" or maybe "Cloud 1," if you will be adding more.
3. You will probably need to adjust the size and placement of the cloud, so hit Ctrl+T to call up Free Transform, and you will get a Bounding Box with an Anchor Point, and also Handles on the Bounding Box.
4. Clickdrag inside the Bounding Box to Move the Cloud, and clickdrag on those Handles to resize the cloud Layer. To constrain the porportions, hold down Shift, while click+dragging on one of the corner Handles.
5. When you have the cloud Layer where you want it, and sized to suit, Dbl-click inside the Bounding Box to comit your changes.
6. Go to Selection>Load Selection, and by default it should be Layer 1 (unless you have Renamed it) Transparency. That is what you want, and if not the default, use the drop-down list to choose that.
7. This will load the Selection used to Copy the cloud, but if you resized and moved the cloud Layer about, will automatically make those changes to the Selection. Here, you get the "marching ants" of the Selection.
8. With the ants visible, go back to Selection, and Choose Save Selection, and here, use the drop-down to get to Layer 1 (or the name of the cloud Layer) Layer Mask.
9. In the Layers Palette, you will get a new Layer Mask icon in the cloud Layer.
10. Click on that Layer Mask icon, to make it active. Note that the colors in the Toolbox will change to black and white. If they do not, then you are NOT working on the Layer Mask. To verify that you are, go to the Channels Palette and make sure that the Layer 1 (or Renamed Layer) Layer Mask is active in the Channels Palette.
11. Use a soft-edged Brush and paint in, or out (black paints in, and white paints out) the Layer Mask to clean up things around your cloud. You can switch between the black and the white by hitting the X key. Work slowly, and do not hesitate to decrease the Brush Size to get in close to the cloud. If you make a mistake, and have gotten past the point, where Undo (Ctrl+Z on the PC) works, do not worry. You have NOT done anything to the pixels in the cloud Layer, but ONLY the Layer Mask. Just paint in, or paint out that work on the Layer Mask.
You might want to go to the Background Layer and work on the color of the sky area, to get it to match closely with any sky area in the cloud Layer. To do that, just Select the airplane, and Invert that Selection, so as to protect the airplane from any color, or density changes.
If you have more clouds to add, just repeat the process for each of those. Especially with more than one cloud, I would definitely Rename the cloud Layers, so you know which Layer and which Layer Mask you are working on.
If PSE does not have Layer Masks, or if their operations differ from the above, post to the PSE forum, and be sure to add my instructions, so a PSE user can instruct you where things differ in PSE.
Good luck,
Hunt