Blue Moon

[rogerg]

Here's my take on yesterday's "Blue Moon", which for me was actually positioned nicely in blue twilight sky, so was kind of a blue moon.

http://www.rogergroom.com/items/blue_moon_march_2010_1722
http://www.rogergroom.com/items/blue_moon_march_2010_1693

Roger.

[Dennis]

Hi Roger

I love the landscape photo – its absolutely gorgeous, a very atmospheric shot! My only suggestion would have been to show more detail of the lunar surface, in terms of making the seas more distinct. I suspect that this would have required some HDR work though.

Cheers

Dennis

[rogerg]

Thanks Dennis,

It's interesting - the detail. I have shots with sharp detail and tried combining them to mix that in, but just couldn't get it looking natural. Whenever I added more detail, it looked like the moon was in front of the clouds :shrug: I tried fading it, bringing in only a little detail etc, but coudn't get a nice balance :( I think I'll have to try some more.

Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated.

[Dennis]

Hi Roger

Hmm, I see the problem.

There may be a solution. When I upgraded to CS4 I got a free 30 day trial to some Photoshop on line video tutorials at Lynda.com and I recollect watching one where the demonstrator used the “blend if” function.

The “Blend if” dialog is in the Layers Panel, under fx, Blending Options and you can set dark and light limits on say, the top layer which will only allow certain tones from the bottom layer to poke through.

This was several months ago and I haven’t used the technique, but it might be worth exploring.

Here’s just one random result from a “Blend if” Google search:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/blend-if/

Cheers

Dennis

[suma126]

looks good roger :thumbsup:

[rogerg]

Thanks Dennis, that looks like it might be of use :thumbsup: I will give it a shot, probably on the flight over to NACAA as time is short right now :)



Thanks Shane :)

[Sab]

Very nice... and educational. Now I know what Blue Moon means.

How rare is a 'Blue Moon'?

Obviously pretty rare, hence the expression...

Does anyone know when it last occurred?

[rogerg]

I think they're about once a year, but not sure sorry. I am pretty sure Perth had oe a in Jan or Feb this year, but having them so close together must be rare :shrug: