Ever tried to take a snap at the moon? The results without a NASA-like telescope are pretty frustating. With Photoshop we’ll be able to blend NASa pretty images ofthe moon within our photos.

This tutorial is aimed to people with minimum knowledge of Photoshop. Shall there be any question, let me know.

First of all you’ll need a ptoho to work with and an image of the moon.

How to work with the moon

This photo’s problem is that it’s daytime! I’ll add a Hue/Saturation layer to darken it and take saturation out.

Then i’ve selected a color range with the sea highlights and I’ve filled a new layer with those.

Well, to the moon! You should cut out the background and add a couple of radial gradients for the halo. Make it brighten by reducing its opacity.

Put the moon on the desiered position and add a Hue/Saturation layer on the top with colorize option set and tune the hue as you like.

It can be improved by copying the rocks from the background into a new layer behing the hue/saturation. Also a few fog will do fine. Just blur some white gradients.

Another photo. It’s sunset and I like the colors but there are trees.

To dakrness it I’ve just used a black radial gradient and I’ve placed the moon I’ve worked with before.

The trees are suposed to be in front of the moon. I’ll select a color range of the trees and I fill a new layer with black using the selecion.

Here comes in hand the smart object as I decide to make the moon greater and bloodier. The color is archieved with a new layer within the smart object.

I wanted to add some fog interacion. But there ain’t raytrace. What I do is increase canvas size from the left and top in order to center the moon. I draw a radial gradient in a new layer and I erase the black areas from the tree layer. The key is a radial blur filter. Then the image is cropped back to its size.

And It’s done. Beware that this layer must have a mask limiting it to the tree zones.