The Sky's NOT the Limit

I've seen other modellers using AI to replace sky backgrounds. Why? Because basement walls with corners, nailheads, drywall imperfections, doorways, TVs on the wall et al make for distracting photo backgrounds. So far, I've been limited to trying to hold up a dollar-store Bristol-board cloud background. Difficult! Low-tech!

A quick online search led me to free BeFunky sky replacer and I tried it on a few recent images taken on my layout. The first step (top photo) was just to change the existing sky. Then I found the 'Change Sky' option. Some of them are a bit too dramatic, but some aren't. This looks better:

A 'drone view' (above) is somewhat believable with a new sky. One of the limitations of the 'AI' are defining the skyline. The software sometime blurs the background with odd results. Also, some of the options could not be used repeatedly or they'd become recognizable. 

The key to using the tool effectively may be to take a photo with sky replacement in mind, not limiting photography to escape background issues in the layout room!

I screen-shotted the images, removed the watermarks and further adjusted them in Photos. Even tried a black & white image:

Looks like a humid, stormy summer Kingston sky:

Bye-bye, wall!

A couple of before-and-after images as a head-to-head comparison. Look at that pesky corner:

Gone!

Retouched background - still a drop ceiling of a different colour:

Gone!

That corner again:

Gone again!

Tried this option just before I said 'good night'!