Moon over Fisher Towers.

Here is another shot of the Fisher Towers in Castle Valley near Moab Utah. I used the lower exposure for the sky over a layer for the towers themselves. What I am wondering is the hard edge where the towers meet the sky. Does it look too obvious and if so how would I soften it? I am not all that proficient with CS. Blur tool?


I tried linking a full size .tif but not understanding something with photobucket. Oh, well here's a .jpg.

IMAGE LINK: http://smg.photobucket​.com …towertestmerge-1.jpg.html

Yeah it's not working too well on my monitor. I'm not a PS guru, but you've got to feather those edges somehow.

No go for me. Not sure how to do what you want and make it look natural.

I agree with Irishman, the edge sticks out way too much, on my monitor looks like a little bit of a halo as well.

It sounds like you have two exposures: one for the towers and one for the moon. What I have done in situations like these, with some success, is to use the select tool on the properly exposed moon, feather the edges lightly, and just paste it onto the image with the properly exposed towers. Oh, and before doing that, I would use the clone tool to remove the overexposed moon from the photo of the towers.

If i were going to do this i'd use the towers as top layers and selecting then feather approx 3-4 and place on the moon image . But i'd do this with original images before any other editing cause it is so hard to get 2 edited the same and still look compatable . Also the hard edges are probably from oversharpening .

Yeah, I have to agree with the above comments. I am not at all happy with my attempts or results.

The shot was a bracketed exposure and I have tried to use the middle and underexposure without using HDR software. I have been reading up on luminiosity masks and think that I will try them rather than what I did for this. I was just lucky that at the time I was there the moon was just rising as the sun was setting which allowed me to get this shot without resorting to "adding" the moon later.

The middle exposure adjusted in lightroom looks way better than this attempt.

I was attempting to get the sky darker and the moon to pop more.

thanks for all the comments.

Ok, have tried another approach. I used Tony Kuper's tutorials on Luminosity Masks and came up with this. I think that it is definitely on the right road.

Comments? Please.

IMAGE LINK: http://smg.photobucket​.com …rtowertestmerge​3.jpg.html

Yes--much better. Crop most of the sky out and that is probably all you are going to get out of it. Brighten the rock a bit.

John,

It's a wonderful composition, but I'm sorry, I don't think you're achieving what you're after with this photograph. There is too much disparity between the two different exposures and it doesn't look natural. Perhaps if the exposure on the sky was brighter, then it might appear to be natural.

Bryan

I agree with Bryan. What does the sky in the foreground exposure look like? If you like it you may try just pasting the moon in to it rather than replacing the entire sky.

To get a feel of what that would look like you could cut out the moon with a very loose and rough selection (making sure to get all the moon) drop it your foreground image in a layer above your foreground layer, and then change the blend mode of the moon layer to lighten. That should at the very least give you an idea of what pursuing this option would look like.

Eastcoast wrote in post #15925051
Here is another shot of the Fisher Towers in Castle Valley near Moab Utah. I used the lower exposure for the sky over a layer for the towers themselves. What I am wondering is the hard edge where the towers meet the sky. Does it look too obvious and if so how would I soften it? I am not all that proficient with CS. Blur tool?


I tried linking a full size .tif but not understanding something with photobucket. Oh, well here's a .jpg.

IMAGE LINK: http://smg.photobucket​.com …towertestmerge-1.jpg.html

Try luminosity masks on this image. I use them all the time for bracketed exporures. Check out Tony Kuyper's site http://goodlight.us/wr​iting/tutorials.html
Mxxxxii

OK, here's the original shot SOC. I have a series of bracketed shots, -1 0 and +1 exposures. I have done a HDR translation with that but wasn't really happy with the result. What I am after is to punch up the rocks for a more vibrant red and also get the sky a deeper blue.

To me the original shot has all the elements but I am really having trouble getting the picture that I have in mind translated with my editing skills.

I don't think that there is any need to cut and past any moon, it is all ready there, I did not change anything from the original just a crop.

IMAGE LINK: http://smg.photobucket​.com …erTowersSOC-3438.jpg.html

Hi. I love Moab my husband and I used to go camping there alot.
Any way I like your origianl shot, I would try to adjust levels and curves in CS and then use a Neutral Density gradients filter to give the sky some punch. Then I would try doing some dodging and burning on the rocks if needed. Just my 2cents. Jean

Have you tried playing with the Exposure in Cs before you do other editing ? I think i like the original more than the other two images . Working the Exposure and maybe adjusting the blue might be ok .