Picasa Tip: Add Drama to your Skies with Graduated Tint

Evening SkyI took this picture at sunset time at our favorite RV park, Thousand Trails Peace River.  I love the beautiful, natural surroundings here.  I was particularly struck by the silhouette of the palm trees against the amber sky.  The sunset was creating a golden sky that night.  But, when I imported the picture to my computer, it didn’t even come close to the colors I experienced.  See the original below.  The colors are so drab, it looks like a black and white picture!  I swear that, what my eyes saw was a golden sky!

 

Recreate the Golden Sky with Graduated Tint

One of our (many) favorite features in Picasa is the Graduated tint tool.  You’ll find it on the 3d tab of editing tools – what used to be called ‘Effects.’  It is pre-set to make blue skies bluer, but you can choose different colors (like the golden sky) just by clicking on the color palette.

Blue sky before Graduated Tint

Graduated Tint, Sharpen

Blue Sky after Graduated Tint, with default blue color
Graduated Tint, Sharpen
Sunset Sky before Graduated Tint

IMG_4221-001

Sunset Sky after Graduated Tint, with chosen color
Evening Sky

If you are a Geeks on Tour member, you can watch these videos to learn more about exactly how this works.

  1. PIcasa’s 12 Effects
  2. *Add Color to Sky with Graduated Tint

*New!  Uploaded today – 12/14/12

One reply

  1. I’m not sure if I’m a Geeks on Tour member. I did buy your Picasa book/DVD and I did sign up to get some emails from you. Is there any way you can check and tell me if I’m a member – and if so, what my user name and password are? Thanks!

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