Sky selection is often one of the most important steps in editing landscape and outdoor images. Whether you’re adjusting exposure, enhancing colors, or replacing the sky entirely, getting a clean selection makes all the difference. Automated tools help, but they don’t always get it right, so knowing how to refine a mask is essential.
Coming to you from Matt Kloskowski, this practical video breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of different sky selection methods in Adobe’s raw editors. The Select Sky tool is the first stop in most cases, offering quick and accurate results for clean horizons. But when the tool struggles with complex edges, such as trees or mountains, additional refinements are necessary. Kloskowski demonstrates how to manually adjust the mask using brushes, subtracting unwanted areas and feathering edges for smoother transitions. He also explains when Select Sky might be too aggressive, bleeding into foreground elements, and how to fix it without overcorrecting.
In situations where Select Sky fails, Kloskowski turns to the Linear Gradient tool. This approach mimics the effect of a graduated neutral density filter, fading adjustments from the top down. It works well for skies with simple transitions but struggles with obstacles like trees. He shows how to refine the mask by subtracting unwanted areas, ensuring that adjustments apply only to the sky. When neither Select Sky nor Linear Gradient works, he introduces the Object Selection tool. This method allows precise selection of specific elements, helping isolate skies in tricky compositions.
The key takeaway is flexibility. No single tool works for every image, so understanding multiple options gives you more control over your edits. Kloskowski also touches on the importance of subtlety—sometimes a perfect selection isn’t necessary. Allowing adjustments to blend naturally into the foreground can create a more realistic result. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Kloskowski.
