today I'm testing the recently released On1 sky swap AI plugin for Photoshop here's what it
says on the On1 website Sky swap AI makes replacing or enhancing a dull Sky a breeze it
detects the sky in your photo and creates a gorgeous mask automatically for this testing
I've downloaded and installed the trial version of the sky swap AI plugin but I won't be buying
this plugin because I already have the on one photo raw software and having compared the sky
swap feature in that it seems identical the only problem with the on1 photoreal software is that
it doesn't work as a plugin so if you want to use on one sky swap in Photoshop you will need to buy
the plugin with that out of the way let's put the software through its Paces using three test
images I've selected these range from something that should be easy for the software to handle
to something that's probably impossible we'll start with the easiest of the images so I can
demonstrate some of the plug-in controls first up I'll duplicate the layer in the image and
then convert this to using smart filters in the Photoshop filter menu then all my adjustments
made in the sky swap plugin will be saved as part of the layer this means that I can reopen
the filter later if I need to to make any further adjustments let's launch the plugin now from the
filter menu here you can see I have various online plugins installed including Sky swap
AI as the plugin loads it analyzes the image and creates a mask selecting the sky at the top of the
filter section we see a small thumbnail showing the mask that's been created and if you're an
existing on one photo raw user I'm sure you'll recognize the interface now as it says on the
website the plugin comes with a couple of hundred high quality Sky images for you to use as well as
being able to import Your Own the Sky Images are arranged into categories which you can access in
a drop down list after that I can use the sky drop down below it to select the image I want to use as
say mouse over each of these Skies the image updates to show me a preview of what it would
look like if it was used I'll just choose the first guy as it seems to suit this image now the
problem you'll encounter with all Sky replacement software is that most guys won't suit the image
usually it's the lighting or sometimes the focal length of the sky that's wrong and therefore looks
false when it's applied the sky swap AI software does try to adjust the image to a low for this but
it isn't quite perfect you can see an example of what it's doing by watching the building when I
switch the preview between the first two images the lighting on the building seems to change as
I switch images but this doesn't work well with all Skies as you can see with image 3 and this
also highlights another problem which is the Halo you see around the building let's select the first
sky as I quite like it and then I'll show you how to fix the Halo if we go to the top of the filter
now and click on the mask thumbnail we can see the usual on what masking tools then when I click the
view button you can see the mask created by the AI software and there are two immediate problems the
first which we've already mentioned is the dark halo around the edge of the building the other is
where the light is reflecting on the wet pavement that's being mistaken for Sky my initial reaction
to fix these was to use the masking tools but I found out there is a much easier way at least for
the Halo it turns out that what's causing the Halo is the fade Edge slider further down the filter if
I move this to the right it increases the dark halo around the building but when I move it left
it reduces it be careful not to reduce it too far though because it will invert the Halo and that's
when you'll start to see the sky covering the building with this image it seems to work best
by having a slightly soft Edge to the mask around the building I can then refine this further using
the shift Edge slider to slightly expand or contract the edge of the Mask again I don't
want to ask than the mass too far or it can cause the original Sky to appear around the edge of the
building this now leaves me with a few white areas on the mask where we see the sky switching between
the image and the mass preview I can see that the only real problem is the patch of light reflecting
off the road fortunately that's easy to fix using the masking brush tool set to paint out the sky I
can then paint over the problem area turning the mask black and hiding The Unwanted sky in that
area now although that's fixed the mask the area still looks darker than it should and it turns out
that's because of this foreground lighting option in the filter this is the feature that changes
the light on the foreground to try to match the light in the sky you'll find that there are two
modes with this which are multiplied to darken the foreground and scream to lighten it there's also a
sample tool that allows you to choose a color from the sky which then gets applied to the foreground
this will worked well but I don't have any real control over where it's applied in the foreground
which is causing this problem the only control we have is this distance slider which acts like
a crude graduated selection to my mind this is a missed opportunity with the plug-in all we needed
here is to have a separate mask just like the one at the top of the filter but that would control
the lighting effect on the foreground having said that let's look at a couple of ways we could fix
this problem now and the first one is in Photoshop I'll just set the foreground sliders to a level
that suits this image and then I'll click the done button to apply the adjustments and then back in
Photoshop and if I turn off the smart object layer you can see the effect the plugins having now I'll
add a new layer mask to the smart layer so that I can hide it by painting with a black brush all
I need to do now is paint over the area of the road where the light is reflecting to reveal the
original image I can then do the same in a other areas like the left side of the building and the
windows if I turn the layer mask off and on you can see how this improves the results let's delete
that now and reopen the sky swap plugin because there's another option to fix a reflection problem
as I said earlier one of the benefits of using the plugin on a smart object like this is that
it saves our settings so we can go back in and adjust them let's start by disabling the lighting
section now of this filter because that's what's causing our problem I'll then go back to the mask
at the top of the filter and click the copy button to copy the mask now I can switch to the local
adjustments tab where the layer has a black mask hiding its effect I can then click that and paste
the mask that I've just copied this adds The Mask to the local adjustments but notice we don't see
any change to the image which can be confusing you would think that as the mask is now selecting the
sky the exposure adjustment would apply to that but it doesn't that's because the adjustments
are only affecting the original image and not the replacement sky this again I think is a
limitation that needs to be changed now watch what happens when I invert the mask we now see that the
exposure slider is darkening the building I can then use the different controls in this section
to adjust the building to produce a more realistic blend I can also add further adjustment layers
to apply more local adjustments to the original image let's click the mask again because there are
a couple of things I want to highlight the first is this drop down where I can use the AI masking
tools to automatically select different objects that the software is recognized in the scene now
I won't use this because for some reason it keeps crashing on my computer instead I'll click on the
Lumen option to produce a Luminosity mask for the image then I can invert this so that it selects
the dark areas of the image I also don't need to worry about affecting the sky with this because
we've already seen that the local adjustments only affect the original image I can then View
and modify any areas of the max to improve the image now that we know how the plugin Works let's
look at a more challenging example the first thing that you'll notice when I switch to using
another image is that the plugin has retained the mask and settings from my previous edit
I was a bit confused with this initially and thought it was a bug but I've traced it to
the preferences where it's set to start up with the last used settings this is on by default and
removing it fixes this problem but if you don't want to do that an easy solution is to click
the reset all button which clears the settings and re-analyzes the image now let's look at the
mask of the sky that's been produced and we can immediately see this isn't great if I use the fade
Edge slider and shift Edge sliders like I used in the previous image it improves The Mask but
there are still a lot of problems remaining in the area below the pier we can see the sky hasn't been
selected but then there are areas that appear where the mask is white and so we will see the
replacement Sky there then the photographer on the horizon has only been partially selected so
heels seem to fade into the sky when I apply the same sky as in the previous edit you can see how
poor the result is now it is possible fix these things using the masking tools but it takes time
some knowledge and a bit of effort rather than showing you how to do that let's go on to look at
a third example this is the image that I thought would be impossible for the software to deal with
it's a sunset scene which already has a dramatic Sky it's also tricky because the sky is reflecting
on the water in the foreground when we check the mass that's been produced we can see that it will
never work where this software appears to work well is where there's a gloomy or obvious and
bright Sky it doesn't seem to like a sky like this where the tones are in balance with the rest of
the image already to create something usable for this image I need to paint over the sky with the
masking brush then to fix the sky reflecting on the water we can use these controls in the
reflection section of the filter these attempt to detect the water in the foreground and use this
to produce a reflection this sometimes creates a good result but other times the selection isn't
sufficiently accurate again this could easily be improved by a separate mask in this section of the
software overall there are some good features in this software and the replacement skies are
extremely high quality I just think that it's being let down a little by the accuracy of the
AI selections but if you're prepared to spend some time cleaning up the masks it can produce some
very good results now if you're wondering how the AI Selections in this plugin compare to those in
on one photo raw watch this review I publish when the software first launched thanks for watching
today don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already I'll see you soon for another video