How to Easily Create a Dramatic Sky in Photoshop

To create a dramatic sky, you’ll need:

• Adobe Photoshop

Step 1

Let’s start by opening our image in Photoshop.

Now, add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer by clicking on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer option at the bottom of the layers palette and selecting Brightness/Contrast from the list that appears.

To define the skies, increase the Contrast and decrease the Brightness. The exact values will depend on your picture. Don’t forget to check the Use Legacy option. Also, there’s no need to worry about how the foreground looks since we will fix that in the next step.

Step 2

Once you are happy with the sky, grab the Quick Selection Tool and select everything in the foreground.

Make sure the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer’s mask thumbnail is selected, then go to Edit > Fill and fill the selection with black.

Step 3

Now, let’s increase the overall contrast of the image. First, make sure you have deselected your selection and then create a Levels adjustment layer by clicking on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer option at the bottom of the layers palette and selecting Levels from the list that appears. Then, use the white color picker to select the lightest part of your image and the black color picker to choose the darkest part of your image.

Finally, create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer by clicking on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer option at the bottom of the layers palette and selecting Hue/Saturation from the list that appears. Then, lower the Saturation down to -70.

And we’re done! This is how you can quickly create a dramatic sky in Photoshop!