Friday, April 02, 2010

The moon moved me so I moved it

Ready for the night

Some double exposures of the moon and the goings on around the Sturgeon Bay lighthouse. As I packed up to leave, a couple of gentlemen arrived to do some fishing. I was nearly back to my car when I looked out to see them at work (good work if you can get it) on the pier. I zoomed in on them and got a shot or two, then added the moon in post.

Late day fishermen

While the telephoto zoom compresses and flattens perspective, I like how the waters on the shore side of the pier are calm while the open water beyond tosses and churns. I also like how one guy chose to anchor his net on the pier. It was pretty windy that night.

Photoshop tip: If you have a good shot of the moon in the semi-dark sky, you can select it with the elliptical selection tool, copy then paste it into another photo. This automatically places the moon on its own layer. It will have the dark ring around it from your selection, but not to worry. Select "Lighten" from the layer options menu. Voila. The moon is now seamlessly blended into the picture. You can then adjust the opacity (which will control the brightness of the moon) to your taste. Flatten the image and save.

Photographs © 2010 James Jordan.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Very nice effect. Thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

An astronomy tip... the moon will always be brightest on the side/half facing the sun. Though I understand realism is not as important as effect, it's fairly easy to spot when a moon is added to a photo based on this fact. According to the pictures here, the sun would be located at around 1 O'Clock. Flipping the moon with the bright side down would depict sunset.