White-grey sky to blue with either blue or white/cream colored objects?

Question

Hi Everyone:
I took up a keen interest in bird photography earlier in the year. So many times when I go out the sky is grey or white.
I have many nice shots of snowy owls, great or snowy egrets and blue herons that would be even better if I had blue sky.
Use PSE 12 for a resource.
So basically my question is in two parts:
Considering I'm a beginner with mostly Lightroom experience:
a) Blue Herons - Both background and main subject are either blue or have shades of blue. Goal is to look natural, smooth with defined edges, retain proper coloration and well-blended.
b) Snowy Owls and Egrets are white or cream on a grey-white background.
I seek a nice contrast with well-defined edges.
if I use the smart brush on a snowy owl for instance it takes part of it and turns it also blue!
How  does one accomplish the above?
Any bird editor tricks?
Thanks in advance.
Bruce

Answer 1

Bruce,
The Alibony technique for sky replacement works best for me:
Watch Lesson 12: Quick Colorless Sky Replacement | Alibony Lessons for Photoshop Elements Episodes | How To Videos | Bli…
Here are my refined notes after watching the video: I posted most of it a few days ago in a reply.
You need 2 pictures: The one that you have with the drab sky which you wish to replace, and a picture of a "good" sky - just blue sky with clouds, nothing else on it. You can take the picture of the sky yourself, or download one from Alibony.
Also, familiarize yourself with the gradient tool, as we will be using this in step #7.
Open your picture (A) (File>open), and open the replacement sky picture (B)
On the sky picture (B), go to Select>all from the menu, then Edit>copy to place it on the clipboard
Go back to your picture (A), then Edit>paste. The new sky (B) should come in on a new layer
With the move tool, use the corner handles to reduce the size of the sky (B) to cover the old sky on (A)
In the layers palette, set the blending mode of (B) to darken
Set the foreground color chip to white
Get the Gradient tool out of the toolbox, and drag a foreground to transparent, linear gradient from below up to the top of the tree line, while holding down the shift key.
With a soft white brush, at reduced opacity, gently paint the horizon a bit, as we want the horizon to be a tad lighter than the rest of the sky.
If necessary, add a few clouds with the Return to Eden set.
TIPS: The Return to Eden cloud brushes are available for download from Adobe Studio Exchange (free)
          Good light sky color is C7D7EA
          Good dark sky color is 628DC0