Replacing a sky when the edges are out of focus.

PonderStibbons

Hello, I was wondering if anyone could help me... I like this picture, except for the white sky. I've tried to replace it, but because I shot with a wide aperture the background is completely out of focus. This means I'm finding it very difficult to replace the sky and not make it look stupid. I was wondering if anyone had any snazzy tips on how to do this better? I'm afraid it's a lost cause, but I really don't want to throw the picture away so I said I'd try this place first. I've been adding a white layer mask to the second layer (the flowers) and painting the white sky with a black brush to bring out the sky underneath. The best I could do was use a huge brush at the least hardness possible, if I try to use a smaller brush and be precise it looks much worse. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

Here's the original:



And here's the best I could do:

ThOnda

For the first, even the sky should be out of focus :-)

Do that manualy by deleting layer of the sky.

5uspect

Its not a bad job tbh,
I'd have a go at experimenting with layer blending modes.
For example if you put your new sky layer on top of the original image and change the blend mode to Darken and it should replace the white nicely.
The problem is the harsh line you get at the edges, maybe a lens blur with a depth mask might help.