If you used Selective Color adjustment layer to turn the white sky to blue then you don't need to put the clouds on another layer...in fact, I suggest that you don't. Just click the Selective Color mask and add the clouds. This way, if you have trees with leaves and branches the clouds will automatically be behind them and no other edit/masking/erasing is needed.
Wilkev wrote:
> Thanks Kent, it's through interacting with you and all the others
> here that I've been able to improve on my edits. Much better than
> pounding through books.
> For Chip; I have to say thanks again to you for all the tips you've
> provided. They all have been excellent.
> With this image, as soon as Akkers posted it, I went to work. Got
> the foreground where I wanted it and the sky too. I did the cloud
> brushes, but then sat back and examined everything. Something just
> didn't seem right. So I went back here to these posts and saw that
> Chip had posted. I took a good long, long...long look at his
> retouches and it dawned on me what I did wrong. My sky was just
> too uniform and my clouds had that "just plop the cotton balls into
> the scene look". I had forgotten about the gradient on the sky so
> I put a slight one in. With the clouds, I adjusted the size of the
> brush so they were very, very large. I put them in on another
> layer. They covered a lot of real estate, so I masked the layer
> and painted out the clouds that covered the mountains. Personally,
> I thought it was much better than my original try.
> Again, thanks go to all of you for your instructional techniques
> given here over the years.
> Regards,
> Bill
>
> Kent C wrote:
> > Nice Bill! You've been doing what I would have done on at least
> > three images lately :-) Gradients are better for flat horizons....
> > not that there isn't some...
> > --
> > Kent
> >
> > http://www.pbase.com/kentc
> > For prior discussions on most questions:
> > http://porg.4t.com/KentC.html
> > or d/l 'archives' at:
> > http://www.atncentral.com
> >
>