One of the least fun editing tasks in Lightroom Classic is cleaning up sensor spots in the sky. Starting with a noisy and mottled sky makes it even worse. I wondered if it wouldn’t be easier to simply replace the sky completely instead of cleaning it up? I didn’t want a sky that was unrealistic or overly dramatic, just clean with a smooth gradient. So, I thought I’d give the new Select > Sky function a try. Here’s how it went.
Starting in LrC, here’s the photo, which is a merged pano that ended up being about 55 MegaPixels.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it.jpg)
I love the colors and even the simple sky, but looking at it up close, it is a bit of a mess. Especially when I turn on the Visualize Spots function in the Spot Removal tool. Ugh. Yes, I obviously needed to clean the sensor.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-1.jpg)
So, after completing my edits in LrC, minus Spot Removal, I sent a copy to Ps with LrC edits to see if I could rebuild the sky quickly and easily. The first thing I did was create a new empty layer above the Background layer. Then, grabbing the Gradient tool, I selected a blue gradient preset, and customized it by selecting colors from the sky in the photo. I wanted the new sky to look very similar to the original, just cleaner.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-2.jpg)
Then, on the new empty layer (that I named New Sky), I held the Shift key to constrain to vertical, and drew out my gradient.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-3.jpg)
I can always re-draw that gradient, but that was good enough for a start. Next, I turned off visibility of the New Sky layer and selected the Background layer. Then, used the Select > Sky menu to have Photoshop work its magic and select the sky for me.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-4.jpg)
With my selection loaded, I made the New Sky layer visible again, selected it, and applied a Layer Mask to it. All my spots, noise, and mottled color were gone!
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-5.jpg)
Next, I wanted to clean up the mask a little. The Select > Sky function does include some of the foreground as part of its function for blending in a new sky, but since my new sky wasn’t much different than the original in terms of color and tone, I didn’t need that aspect. So, with the mask selected, I clicked on Select and Mask in the Properties panel to refine the mask.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-6.jpg)
With the view in Select and Mask set to Black and White you can see the mask clearly.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-7.jpg)
Increasing the Contrast slider forces the black areas blacker and white areas whiter, and cleaned that up nicely. With the output set to Layer Mask, I clicked OK, and I was done. Here’s the before and after just turning off the New Sky layer.
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-8.jpg)
![](https://spsphoto.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/replacing-the-sky-instead-of-cleaning-it-9.jpg)
I will definitely keep that in mind for the next dirty sky, and will most likely will be using the Spot Removal brush in LrC a whole lot less (and yes, I did also clean the sensor). Hope you find that useful too!
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