How to perfect your pictures

An overly busy background distracts from the foreground, but now and then a background isn't busy enough, as in this photo of a Buenos Aires tomb seen against an empty blue sky. We needed to send in some clouds to add a bit of interest, and in this case, it was easy. We strolled outdoors when the cloud cover was just right and took a nice picture of the sky. We opened both files, selected the cloud photo, chose the Move tool, and dragged it over to the other image, creating a new layer on top of the original background layer. The Layers palette shows both layers, labeled Background and Layer 1. We clicked the Background layer and selected Layer > Duplicate Layer to create a Background Copy layer.

Next, we dragged the Background Copy layer up on the palette so that it was above the cloud layer. Using the Magic Eraser tool (hold the mouse down over the Eraser tool), we clicked areas of solid blue sky until it all disappeared to reveal the cloud layer. Finally, we used the Move tool to slide the cloud layer around until it looked just right.

As a further enhancement, with the Background Copy layer selected, choose the Sponge tool, set the Mode to Saturate, and paint over the angel a few times to enhance the color.