In this tutorial we will replace a sky in one image with a copy of more dramatic sky from another image. We will learn how to use selections, magnetic lasso, magic wand and a temporary editing layer.
Step One: Find a suitable image with a new sky. This image should be of a similar size and the sky should be coherent, so there shouldn't be any trees etc. Once you have the source and destination image, open them in Photo Studio's Editor. To open the first image, just doubleclick on the thumbnail in Browse window. To open the second one, you'll have to hold a CTRL key while doubleclicking. This will tell to the application that you want to open the image in a new editor and leave the other one as it is.
Step Two: Select all the sky in the destination image. You have a wide range of selection tools available for this operation. Because we have an image where the sky is much brighter than other parts of the image we can take advantage of a Magic Wand tool. A magic wand is a selection tool where the selection is based on a similarity of pixels with the selected one. This tool has two parameters that affect its behavior. The Tolerance determines the similarity or difference of the pixels selected. The Continuous option determines whether the selection will "spill" out into all similarly-colored areas in the whole picture, or stay in just one continuous area. To actually perform the selection, click on the color and the area (if using Continuous) where you want it.
Step Three: Refine the selection by adjusting the parameters and by applying the magic wand tool multiple times. To erase the current selection just press ESC. After that you can set tool's parameters to a more suitable ones and create a completely new selection. However it is unlikely that you will be able to create a perfect selection in a single step. Therefore it is good to know that you can add to and subtract from selections. By holding a SHIFT key a selection tool will switch to a mode where a new selection will be added to the existing one. By holding a CTRL key you can subtract from an existing selection. You can also switch between different selection tools at this stage.
Step Four: Now switch to the other editor and select the sky in the second image. Because the image has a low contrast we can't use a Magic Wand tool as easily as in the first case. On the other hand we can see the horizon quite clearly and this is a perfect situation where it is wise to use a Magnetic Lasso tool. To perform the selection, click on the appropriate icon on the toolbar and then click on the left end of horizon. Move your mouse along the horizon to the right and you'll see that the tool snaps to edges. Because the tool will occasionally fail to follow the edges, you'll have to fix a position of a selection by a single click from time to time. When you get through the horizon to the right part of the image, continue creating the selection along the edges of the image to select the whole sky. Once you get to the start point, just move the cursor over it until its shape changes and then click to finish the selection.
Step Five: Copy the selected area from the source image by pressing Ctrl+C. Paste it to the other editor by pressing Ctrl+V. In most situations the position and size won't match the desired ones. You can move the inserted picture freely and resize it by dragging its edges. Because the inserted image behaves like a temporary layer now, you can modify layer's blend mode and opacity to get an alternative look.
Step Six: Once the new sky is positioned you might find out that the outline of the selection disturbs you. You can hide it by turning on Selection Editing Mode and setting it up the same way as on the screenshot below. Now you might notice that the outline has been hiding some imperfections on the edge of inserted image. In the selection editing mode you can use Paintbrush tool to fix the local imperfections - in this mode brush tool draws into the selection.
Step Seven: If you want to avoid the hard part of the work with the brush tool, you might try to Modify Selection using a dialog which is available from Selection menu. By expanding and bluring the edge you can hide many imperfections quickly although not that precisely as with a brush.
Result: Once you are ready, turn off Selection Editing Mode and click on Apply to merge the temporary layer with the background. The selection will stay so you can make further adjustments like a tonal ones. Save the image under a new filename because this operation can not be undone once the editor is closed. Zoner Photo Studio doesn't fully support layers and therefore you can't save the image as a background with a layer, you can save the final result only.
