This is a complete image, just resized from the in-camera JPG, no PP at all. (I have the raw file as well if required.) The bird is a Scarlet Honeyeater - not a species you see often, and certainly not one I regularly get the opportunity to photograph. So, essentially, this is the shot I'm going to have to work with.

The background is not sky!

It's not that weird, un-natural blue because I had my camera set wrong and under-exposed it, it is the wall of a weatherboard shack, painted blue, and (as intended when I took the shot) blurred by being out of focus.



So, what should I do with this picture? I will clone out some of the greenery as it is messy and distracting, we will take that as a given. Yes, I know I'm a big fan of leaving pictures as-is, but I do clone stuff out now and then, and in the case of this picture, I'll clone some greenery, and I certainly want to do something about the horrible blue.

Best answer, I guess, is replace the blue with something more natural-looking, such as green. I've had a quick play with ACR and discovered that I can alter the blue and only the blue quite easily ... trouble is, all I can do is alter the saturation and a few other things that are not really relevant. What I need to do is replace the blue entirely with green. For that I need Photoshop, and the Photoshop "replace colour" tool is not terribly helpful.

Suggestions, good AP members?


PS: I'm currently using CS3, but I also have an evaluation copy of CS4 with 29 days left on it, so either one is fine.