C & C editing efforts

[Heretotherephoto]

New to Photoshop and have been playing around with some shots from a few weeks ago. What I did: I played with the temp of the image trying to enhance the reds. I also played with the contrast which seemed to make the image more interesting. The moon was far too bright so inserted a fill color layer black and reduced the opacity till I got the desired effect. I also made the moon more round using the clone tool. The shutter was open for awhile to get the shot which led to a bit of movement on the moon.

I am curious what folks would suggest for editing this further. Specifically how could I make the moon a little more interesting? I have tried to take a more interesting moon and place it in the picture but have not gotten that figured out yet.

This photo is okay to edit.

Thanks

 

[HikinMike]

Something like this?

I wanted to capture what I saw that evening, but you can't do it with one exposure. I set up my tripod, exposed the first one for the moon, then exposed the second for the background (clouds). I used Layer Masks to blend the two in Photoshop.

 

[Heretotherephoto]

yeah I want to try that method but am waiting for the book to arrive so I can learn how. You posted an example of one of your website photos awhile ago about how to do that. I am trying to figure out how to get the brush like you did in CS3. The way it feathered to make a smooth transition. I haven't had a lot of time to play though. Stuck in a hotel now though so maybe I'll fiure it out.

Also how do you upload more than one image at a time in order to work with it? I know you can align the layers but not sure how.

 

[HikinMike]

I set the Brush Tool to 300px and '0' Hardness. Then you can use the [ and ] brackets keyboard to decrease/increase the size. You van also vary the opacity to refine the Layer.

To align the different images into one file....I use the 'Shift' key while using the 'Move' tool.