Clone stamp moon from another exposure

[inferlogic]

Hi All,

New here and googled this forum looking for some help with a photo I'm currently editing which is a nightscape photo of a lake.

On some earlier exposures I caught snaps of a thin crescent moon which looked really nice, however I preferred the colours of the sky from a later time after the moon had set. But those where a completely different composition. So I have edited the colours in Lightroom, brought the image into Photoshop and edited a little further with Camera Raw.

I have pulled up an earlier photo of the moon and tried to imitate the same colours in Lightroom which are completely different, but when I get as close as I can to the colour of the sky and try to mask paint in or use selection tool copy and paste, it just looks it's been stuck on there. Ideally would like to make it slightly larger if possible too.

Is there any way I can tell Photoshop to change the colour of the sky on photo's to be exactly the same so I can simply clone stamp in the moon and it would look natural? Or is there another better way to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help offered.

 

[IamSam]

Or is there another better way to do this?

This is one other way to do this!

Make a selection of the moon.
Move to the image you want.
Position and resize.
Set the blend mode to "Lighten".
Add a Hue & Saturation adjustment layer. Clip it to the moon layer. Set to colorize. Adjust the sliders.
You will have to add a layer mask to the moon layer and use the Brush Tool to mask the remnant edges.
(Note: Did not include the reflection)



These are the settings I used in the H&S layer.........yours may be different!

 

[inferlogic]

Thanks IamSam I will give it try and see how it looks

 

[IamSam]

Not a problem. If you have questions, let me know.

 

[inferlogic]

I've got this far and think I matched the colour okay, but not sure I understand the mask and pen tool, I can do the mask, but not sure from there, I thought about creating an elliptical over the whole thing but the mask is removing all of it instead of just the outer edge, how do target just the outer edge?

 

[IamSam]

but not sure I understand the mask and pen tool,

Mask and Brush Tool. Sorry for the confusion.

mask is removing all of it instead of just the outer edge, how do target just the outer edge?

It shouldn't with a reveal all mask (white), and use a soft brush to mask the edges.

This is what the mask looks like....

 

[inferlogic]

I did it bro! that was really quick help thanks so much

 

[IamSam]

Great!!! You're very welcome!