Hi everyone, I'm looking for some help here. I really like this image I got of the moon over the US capitol but I messed up the companion shot with the moon properly exposed. I have a second one with the moon properly exposed but in a different spot. Can anyone point me to a tutorial for how to blend them together so I have some definition in the moon in the first shot? I can move and resize it just fine but I can't figure out a good way to make the texture of the moon show through without it looking terrible.
Thanks!
Not sure what editing software you're using but this is what I'd do in Photoshop. I'd cut out a the moon and a somewhat generous area around it from the 2nd shot and paste it into the 1st shot on a new layer. Then I'd lower the opacity of the pasted moon so I could see better and align them both so they're right on top of each other and scaled correctly. Next I'd create a layer mask for the pasted moon. Then I'd make a selection of the statue and fill that in with black making sure that the layer mask was selected and not the layer. That should make it look like the pasted moon is behind the statue. From there I'd take a medium sized brush and use black to paint on the layer mask around the moon hiding the edge of the pasted image and blending it in. This is what will likely take the most time to actually look okay. My recommendation is the first mask off more than needed so you have the outer rim of the original moon showing and then adjust the brush size to be roughly the same size as the moon and with strength set to 0% just tap once in the center of the moon. It should bring back the edges without ruining the lighting. Then I set the layer blend mode to luminosity and also add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer and raised the brightness.
Idk what your experience level with Photoshop is but if you're looking for guides I recommend Umesh on PixImperfect: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMrvLMUITAImCHMOhX88PYQ
I personally don't like his editing style but he is an incredible teacher and has a ton of really useful videos. For this edit I'd recommend looking up masking if you aren't already familiar.
(I hope you don't mind but I wanted to try it for myself so I wasn't just talking out of my ass here. This is what I got after a few minutes. The outside edge of the moon still needs quite a bit of work, maybe make the layer mask selection using the moon instead of painting it in w a brush?)
This is helpful. I've gotten to the layer mask step and having trouble getting the masking/blending right. I'll give your steps a try and see how that goes. Might have some more questions for you later.
Thanks!
Or I would if photoshop weren't busted... >:(
No problem! And it's just something you gotta mess with for a while. Another useful tip would be to lower the flow setting for the brush (located at the top of the menu). Setting it anywhere from 5% to 10% can help a lot with stuff like this where combining layers is finicky.