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[ 33 ]Step 20: Next, press Command-L
(PC: Ctrl-L) to apply a Levels adjust-
ment to lighten the moon a little.
Reducing the contrast helps with the
atmospheric haze. Notice we only
adjusted the midtone slider below
the histogram, and also nudged the
black Output Levels slider to around
- Click OK.
Step 21: To make the moon seem
more distant, let’s add some blur to it.
First, we want to blur the edges more
than the rest of the moon, so hold
down the Command (PC: Ctrl) key,
and click on the moon layer thumb-
nail in the Layers panel to load the
shape as a selection.
Go under the Select menu, to
Modify, and choose Border. Set the
Width to around 10 pixels and click
OK. This will create a border selection
isolated to just the edge of the moon.
Go under the Filter menu, to Blur, and
choose Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius
to 1 pixel and click OK. Press Com-
mand-D (PC: Ctrl-D) to deselect.
Step 22: Click on the sky image layer
to make it active. Click on the Add a
Layer Style icon at the bottom of the
Layers panel, and choose Gradient
Overlay. In the Layer Style dialog, c lick
on the Gradient preview strip to open
the Gradient Editor. You should see
the same gradient we used earlier.
Drag the current color stops inward,
and then c lick below the gradient
ramp to add two more stops at either
end. Set the stop on the left to black,
and the stop on the right to white.
Click OK to close the Gradient Editor.
You can see the settings here to
add an atmospheric glow to the sky
layer, helping it blend in with the
overall scene. Click-and-drag in the
image to manually position the gra-
dient so the light area is in the area
of the horizon line.