Sky replacement

My updated photo processing software now comes with a nifty 'sky replacement tool' - so I thought I'd try it. You have always, of course, been able in theory to import a new sky into a photo but it was a fiddly process, impossible unless there were clean lines to the sky space and it usually looked plain daft. This new tool is actually pretty impressive in the way it uses algorithms and sliders to blend in the new sky. There are a few 'skies' provided but it feels pretty important to me to build up your own portfolio of skies to use if you're serious about making use of the tool. 

Having said that, for this trial I used one of the supplied images. I think it has worked reasonably effectively. Of course, you also have somehow to blend in the foreground too and, with the reflections, that proved a little more tricky. The 'before' image is below, with a blank grey sky. The 'after' is above. It perhaps looks a little more interesting but I'm not convinced it looks entirely realistic. I don't think it's something I'll use a lot. I'm not keen on 'doctoring' my photos and pretending it's real, though I do enjoy creative manipulation of images where that is a deliberate and obvious process. I know a lot of people really like heavily filtered images these days, as seen on social media. Each to his own. I suspect the debate will rage and we may see many more images where we wonder how 'real' it is.