How to Easily Apply Cloud and Sky Overlays in Photoshop – Pretty Photoshop Actions

How to Apply Sky Overlays in Photoshop

Who wants to learn about the truly magical Pretty Actions Photoshop Sky Applicator actions and see them in action? Who wants to see the beautiful Sky Overlays you can use to replace dreary grey or blown-out skies in your images? You do? We’re so happy! And of course, you’ve come to the right place!

Besides the 35 vivid high-resolution sky overlays, there are some really amazing actions included in this collection. The two most amazing actions – are the Blown-Out Sky action and the Overcast Sky action. These actions will work on both blown out skies and overcast skies (skies that appear gray or white) and they will completely replace your existing sky with the new one with little or no masking involved – now that’s a magic action if we ever did see one!

Super Quick Application!

Unlike Sky overlays from other companies, there is not a lot of retouching involved, all that needs to be done for the most part takes one quick click and on occasion an extra 30 seconds of cleanup – that’s it!

What Else is Included?

What else comes in this collection you ask? Well, even though it’s pretty impressive that we’ve worked tirelessly to provide our favorite peeps with a new, revolutionary way of having their sky overlay simply appear in their images in place of the old sky (yep, it’s magic – Pretty Actions Style), we’ve also beefed up this collection with some additional super fun actions and enhancements to make your skies perfect and absolutely everything you’ve envisioned!

Enjoy easy to use, built-in options that auto populate upon applying your sky. With these actions you can make your sky hazy, soften the horizon, make it lighter, darker, warmer, cooler, more saturated and even give your overlay a natural blur – all at your fingertips.

Add Sky Reflections in Water with One Click!

Want to hear more? Of course love talking about this collection because it’s just super fun to play with and easy to use! On top of the Sky Replace actions and easy to apply add-ons there are also actions that will create a realistic reflection of your sky if there’s a river or lake in your image, how cool is that!?

Paint Your Sky Action to Add Dreamy Color Too!

Oh and just in case you like to make your skies a bit more dreamy, you can take advantage of the “Paint a Pretty Sky” actions that allow you to be the artist and add a soft pastel tint to your sky, giving your image an extra dreamy touch.

Phew! The Vivid Skies collection is jam packed with 35 sky overlays and lots of cool actions to apply and enhance them. OK, we know you are itching to see just how cool and easy these Overlays are to use.  Before we jump in and show you a complete sky swap using our magic actions, we are going to quickly go over how to install your actions and locate your Overlays that come with this collection.

How to Install the Vivid Skies Photoshop Actions

To install your Vivid Sky actions, first make sure your Photoshop Actions Panel is open. If you don’t see it, navigate to your top Menu>Windows>Actions and voila! Your Actions Panel will appear.

Next let’s install the actions…you will be surprised at how easy this is! Simply click on the little Menu icon at the top right of the Actions Panel and select “Load Actions” from the drop down menu. Lastly, you’ll want to navigate to where you have your actions saved and double click on the action file, the actions from this collection will automatically appear in your Actions Panel.

Quick Tip: if you decide to add a sky to your image, it’s usually a good idea to apply it first before you apply any of the overall image adjustments. This will make your image look cohesive and more realistic since it will all end up with similar color tones when you are finished editing.

OK, enough waiting, let’s dig into the good stuff and use the actions in this collection to magically apply the Sky Overlays to an image.

Using the Magic Sky Replace Actions to Apply a Sky Overlay

The image we are using has a blown out sky, so we are going to locate the “Blown-Out Sky Magic Replace” action in our Pretty Actions Sky Applicator collection, select it and press Play.

When you press Play, you will be prompted to select the overlay you would like to place on your image. Again, here you will navigate to where you have your Pretty Actions Sky Overlay download saved on your computer and simply select the sky you would like to place in your image.

Voila!  After picking your Sky, just resize it until it fits with the overall size and proportions of your image and you can also rotate your sky to the desired angle. Press Enter to place your sky. Ta da!!  The sky magically appears only where the old sky appeared. I don’t have to mask anything off the subject. This is a huge time saver and after using it you aren’t going to know how you ever got along with out it!

We are going to take an extra few seconds to click on and adjust a few of the add-on options for this edit:

• Blur your Sky Action
• Sky Fade Action
• Hazy Sky Action
• Lighter Sky Action

Bam, we’re done!

We couldn’t be happier with the collection and we know you will love it too! We worked so hard to make the magic happen for you and we’re really very proud to share these wonderful magic sky replace actions and gorgeous sky overlays with everyone.

You can check out the Vivid Skies Cloud & Sky Overlay Collection here. You will be super happy you did!

If you are more of a visual learner, we’ve also got you covered. Check out our video tutorial covering all you need to know about this set!