Introduction: This tutorial is to help you learn how to add a realistic looking moon to any photo. This can add a certain mystique to your favorite pictures. It also can add a little something extra to a fine art digital photo. Once you have your picture open in photoshop:
1. First of all you will need to get a photo with a realistic moon, I would recommend the one on the left which can be downloaded at: jilt33.com/supernova/luna.html
2. Then select the Rectangular Marquee Tool and select the moon you would like as shown on the left.
3. Once you make the selection go to Edit and select Copy (Edit>Copy). Then open the photo you are working with and go to Edit and select Paste (Edite>Paste). If the moon looks too big in the new photo you will have to crop the moon photo on the left.
4. Then move the moon to where you would like it with the Move Tool.
5. Then your photo should look something like this below. In order to get rid of the black here is what you do:
6. First of all change the Layer Blending Mode to Screen.
7. Then in order to make the moon look a little more realistic to this photo I lowered the opacity to 63% and the Fill to 90%. (I also erased the top to make it look like it was behind the leaves)
In order to make the reflection on the water I just rotated it and did almost the same steps. The only thing different was that I lowered the Opacity and Fill quite a bit more.
Like This Article?
Don't Miss The Next One!
Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current:
Fine, except the phase of the moon you added is not up in the sky at night. You should learn more about what phases are visible first, then add them to a photo.
i was wondering if you can suggest a good photoshop website I can use?
Thanks for taking the time to post this, the tip on the screen mode it priceless!!
Paul Caldwell