Adding Realistic-Looking Clouds to an Image

Friday, November 28 2008

In this tutorial, we will be looking at using PhotoShop's built-in Cloud Render filter and Quick Mask to create more realistic-looking clouds.

We will start off with the following image. Let's add a more appealing sky, including wispy clouds. The first thing we want to do is extend the image, to make more room for the sky. Goto Image > Canvas size. This image is currently 400x300, so we'll make it 400x400px:

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We'll move the photo to the bottom, and then choose the gradient tool to recreate the sky in the gap:

We can smooth the edges with the eraser tool with a soft brush to blend the two layers a little better:

It doesn't need to be perfectly seamless, as we'll be overlaying clouds.
Next, press the Q key to go into Quick Mask mode. Then goto Filter > Render > Clouds. You should get a cloudy red look to your image:

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Now goto Filter > Render > Difference Clouds. Then press Ctrl+F to repeat this 3 or 4 (or more). You will notice the red haze change.

Now press Q to exit out of Quick Mask mode. You should be left with a selection of random pixels like so:

Choose a Marquee tool, create a New Layer and right-click the selection, then choose Fill. We want to fill with White. Press Ctrl+D to deselect when filled:

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Now goto Edit > Transform > Skew, then re-arrange the clouds to match the skyline, like so:

Now all that is left to do is to erase the clouds around the foreground. Choose the erase tool with a soft brush, and erase around the foreground image:

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Comments

Andrea Rollier said on 02/03/2009 at 7:24 PM

Thank you so very much! GREAT tutorial, this was so easy!!


Ashley said on 02/14/2009 at 7:00 PM

Thanks so much! This tutorial was easy to follow and extremely helpful!


Ariq said on 02/27/2009 at 5:29 AM

Thanx....I'm new to Photoshop and I've learned this feature too......Thanx again.