Lightroom’s graduated filter is a great tool for boosting skies. You can adjust the exposure, tone and tint to make the sky more dramatic, without affecting the rest of the image. The grad filter, along with the adjustments brush and radial filter, is a local vs global adjustment tool, so you can just tweak part of your image. While it’s often used for adjusting exposure, you can also use it to add saturation, clarity and color to areas of your image you want to stand out. The tool is very flexible and you can even add multiple filters for some really interesting effects.
In this video tutorial you’ll learn how to use the grad filter to decrease the exposure and add saturation to a washed out sky to bring back the blue.
Bring Back a Blue Sky With the Graduated Filter