Last Night - Post Sunset

I was able to capture the moon in this position just after sunset. I had to bracket the scene with 2 images then manually merge to capture the rather large range of light.

185mm, f/18, ISO 100, 1/6 and 1.3 seconds.

Don, you are going to have to do a little better job of pasting the moon in. Make it's sharpness and color hues match the sky.

Definitely NOT pasted in, Rick. However, as said, the scene was bracketed and the moon from the shorter SS shot was laid on top of the other then the moon was desaturated as it was far too orange from that exposure. It's true that it gives that impression, I know. The single exposure would show an all-white moon. Perhaps preferable.

Here's the original single shot. No blending of the moon from another shot. Does it really look better? Doesn't it still give the impression that the moon has been added?

WOW! Sorry Don. My mistake. Just the way it was processed, I guess. I've pasted many a multiple exposure from the same time, moon shots and I know how some of mine turned out. I didn't mean that you pasted it into the scene from another night...
The moon just looks so sharp, and the night looks hazy. The two kinda conflict aesthetically...

Cool shot BTW...

Yeah we all know what Rick really meant..

I like the shot also, but if you hue and sat that moon in the first one it'll look great.

I sure like your first post, Don. Classic and dreamy Mt. Rainier at dusk. I know you'll get good suggestions about handling the moon. It just looks like it doesn't fit the mood is all. But it is definitely better than the all white disk. Hope you'll show it again if you try Jeremy's (or others') suggestions. I'd like to see it.

Thanks, Jeremy. I'll be reworking it with your suggestions in mind.

OK, here's a rework that I do like better. Among other things, contrast was increased on the Mountain and reduced on the moon.

However desirable, I'm beginning to wonder if just eliminating the moon altogether might not be the best solution.

Don, you captured what I was wishing I had been able to as I saw this jsut a tad too late while returning home last evening. I like the image with more contrast, only I think that the moon needs to be lightened up a tad.

Don, there's hope for this moon! I don't know exactly what you did PS wise to get it in there in the first place, so if I'm telling you stuff you already know here, you can disregard it.

First, clone out the bright moon on the background picture so no moon or halo from the moon exists at all. Then drop the darker moon on a second layer. Use the eraser tool at high magnification to erase out all the dark pixels around the edge. Then you may want to use a fuzzy brush with the eraser tool around the circumference of the moon so that it is not so sharp around the edges. The goal is not to actually erase the edge of the moon, but to make it slightly translucent, to let the background show through the very edge of the moon. As a last step, you might copy a piece of the pink Belt of Venus and paste it over the moon itself as another layer. Adjust the opacity of the top layer to taste. You may or may not need the last step, though.

I'm sure there is an easier way to antialias the edge of the moon against the pink background, but this is the only way I know how and in the one picture I did it in, it worked pretty well.

This is a really nice shot, too. I really love the pastel colors here.

I'm not a blending/cloning expert, but the mood does look pasted into the photo to my eye. I wish I had something more constructive to contribute, but like I said, I'm not an expert.

I do love the comp though. If you could just get the moon to blend in better you'd have a wall hanger. The last one is better, but it's still not quite there IMHO.