CoffeeShop "Sanibel Beach Dreams" Photoshop/PSE Editing Tutorial: Part 3, Adding Stunning Beach Sky Overlays!!!

I have been posting the step-by-step tutorial on one of my favorite beach portrait edits I call "Sanibel Beach Dreams".

Today in Part 3 I show you how to add a gorgeous sky overlay to a flat boring sky. You can download the sky overlay I made to use in this tutorial below.

Tomorrow in Part 4 of the tutorial I will add a beautiful pastel rose/ivory tint to the image.

Make sure you go read Part 1 (Retouching a beach portrait) and Part 2 (Adding gorgeous colors to beach sand, water, and sky.)

I have some other beautiful beach sky overlays here and here.

Sometimes nature gifts you with a gorgeous sky, other times you take the perfect photo but the flat, boring sky is almost distracting. 

In this beach portrait image from Rachel Taylor Photography I am going to show you how I added a stunning sky.

When I make these sky overlays I start with a gorgeous image (my own or one from Pixabay) and then edit it for color/contrast.

I already edited this image with Part 1 and Part 2 but then I decided it needed a pretty sky.

I opened and dragged on this gorgeous sky overlay (download it at the bottom of this post.)

This overlay has been designed to be used on water so you can capture some of the beautiful light reflections from the sky.  I haven't seen anyone else do with their overlays but this editing technique works so well. I have a step-by-step tutorial how to create and use these beach sky overlays.

I put the beach sky overlay in Multiple blending mode, 61% and adjusted the placement to taste. I want the sharp clouds in the sky and the bottom blurred reflection under the horizon, on the water. You can free-transform this to fit you own image.

I used a black hard brush on the layer mask to remove the sky overlay from below the horizon.

I decided to lower the opacity to 36%. You can also try Soft Light or Overlay blending modes.

If you continue this edit to Part 4 where I add a vintage rose/ivory tint you might need to further adjust this layer.

Now for the special CoffeeShop trick. I grabbed a 30% opacity soft white brush and added some of the beach sky reflection layer to the water. You can see a subtle gorgeous light reflection on the water. In some areas I painted twice to add more. I think this really adds so much to the image and makes the sky look more realistic.

I hope you enjoyed this part of the "Sanibel Beach Dreams" tutorial! Check back tomorrow for Part 4 of the "Sanibel Beach Dreams" tutorial.

Download the free CoffeeShop Beach Sky Overlay Set. .

Do you want to download thousands of professional CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop actions (including exclusive ones not found anywhere for free), textures/overlays, scrapbooking papers, clip art/design elements, photo storyboards and frames, and Lightroom presets from this site in one convenient zipped file AND help support this one-woman blog?

Just click here for my CoffeeShop Mega Download Pack!