- Bonjour mesdames and messieurs.
In this very simple episode I'll show you
how to add the Moon to your photos.
(inspirational music)
Bonjour mesdames and messieurs.
My name is Serge Ramelli, I'm a French photographer
from the amazing, the incredible city of Paris, France.
Right now, in Los Angeles, California.
A few days ago, we had a blood Moon that was amazing.
A lot of photographers was talkin' about it.
So, I had the idea to create this fake photo
putting the Moon in New York and actually,
it happened to be my most liked photo ever on Instagram.
I wanna show you how I did it.
I wanna give you the source files.
I wanna give you the Moon so
you can do it in your own photos.
All you have to do is click the link below the video,
sign up, and you can get it right away, it's entirely free.
Also, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
I'm gonna make two videos per week, hopefully this year.
I have a lot of new stuff coming up.
But right now, let me show you
how you can add the Moon in your photos.
Alright guys, so I wanted to show you
the story behind this photo, this is something
that I posted for the super Moon
that we had last Sunday night.
This is actually a completely fake photo.
It's a composite that I actually
wanna show you how I did this.
The actual photo that I took that night is different.
This photo got 5,222 likes on Instagram
which is the highest I ever had.
So that night I actually shot this one and this one.
But this one is fake, I think it's funny,
and I'm gonna show you how to do it.
Plus it's a great way to learn Photoshop.
So I'm gonna go here in Lightroom
and this is a photo that I shot
from the top of the rock looking down
the Empire State building at 134 mm with my 24240.
So it's pretty zoomed in.
Then I shot this Moon a couple
of years earlier with a 72300 at 300.
We're gonna blend both of that.
But first, let's do a bit of retouching
'cause this is a RAW file, it's completely not retouched.
So I'm just gonna open up the shadows,
bring down the highlights, I'm gonna do my black point.
I'm gonna do a white point and maybe
just add a bit of magenta, yellow,
I wanna make it really warm.
Maybe a bit of clarity so it's very sharp.
Let's see, yeah, the photo is very sharp.
I'm gonna add to it a little bit of sharpening.
Usually when I start to work in Lightroom,
a bit of sharpening, I'm gonna do my masking
which is using the masking tool.
The masking works is basically anything
which is black is not gonna get sharpen.
I can see there is some dust, so I'm gonna use
the visual spot here and get rid of this dust.
This is probably a star but that's okay,
I'm going to get rid of it anyway.
So we have a clean photo.
Usually what I do is I go into edit
and open a smart object in Photoshop.
By opening up a smart object in Photoshop,
I can do other things to it if I want to.
So here I am in Photoshop now.
This is my Moon photo.
This one, right off the bat, let me reset it.
What did I do to it?
I just opened up the shadows, I wanted to make it
a more red, so maybe add a bit of yellow like this.
Make it boost the whites a little bit.
Something here, I'm gonna go right click, edit,
and open a smart object in Photoshop.
This way I got two smart objects on top
of each other which is really cool.
So here I am in Photoshop and what I'm going to do
is I'm gonna take this Moon here
and I'm gonna drag using the move tool this over to this.
So the Moon is here and it looks weird so how do we do it?
Well, we have blending modes in Photoshop.
What do I want?
I want a blending mode that's gonna erase the black
and basically just let the Moon go through, so here I go.
Screen, and look at that.
The Moon is there, we just have a problem
is that the Moon is basically, we need to mask out.
If you look at the Empire State building,
the Empire State building is very,
there's a lot of details going on
so we need to do a good mask.
So the best way to do that is make sure
you're on the layer where you have that
and then you take the W for the quick select brush tool.
Since this is like a pretty big sky,
with no details, you can just go here.
Look, it did already a great selection.
I wanna make sure 'cause that's where the Moon is.
That is great there.
So you have to go to the select and mask tool.
The select and mask tool is gonna show you how your mask is.
Right now, I don't see much.
One thing that's very important
is that, in view, you have different options
like black and white, onion skin, marching once.
I like to use overlay because with overlay
you can see both, you can see what's not selected
which is normal and what is selected which is in red.
If you go to black and white, it's kinda hard
to tell if the mask is good or not.
With red, I find it better but you see
we are missing a lot of details here.
Well, there's a brush here which is right here.
This brush you see has little hairs and things.
I'm gonna make it slightly bigger
by holding the ctrl and alt key on my keyboard
and I'm just gonna brush where there is details missing
and the brush is gonna pick that up, no problem.
You see, now everything, every little detail
of the Empire State building is in red.
It means that it's selected.
Maybe we can add that little antenna and we are good.
So I'm gonna press OK, so now I got a good mask.
So all I have to do now is basically go back to the Moon
and click here on create a mask.
Because I have an active selection, the Moon is there.
If I wanna move the Moon somewhere else,
you can click on the Moon but if you start moving it,
it's gonna look weird because
it's gonna move the mask with it.
So command+z to undo, command+z to undo.
What you can do is click this little lock here
and now, if I move it, the mask is gonna stay in place
and I can move it wherever I want.
I think I actually might make it slightly bigger
'cause I think that's what I did in the original photo.
I want this to match even better and remember,
we've been using smart objects
so I think I'm gonna double click
on the original smart object which is
the city, maybe add more contrast to it,
a little more vibrant, and make it a little bit brighter.
Something like this, even warmer maybe, voila.
Them I'm gonna do the same thing
since it is two smart objects, which is really cool.
So it just takes a bit of time.
I think I wanna add more details on the Moon.
So same thing, I'm gonna double click on the smart object.
I'm gonna add more contrast, maybe more clarity on the Moon,
and press OK, and that's gonna update that smart object
which should make the Moon more visible, voila.
Now the thing that's very important to me
is to crop the photo because I think
there's too much going on, so I'm just gonna crop the photo.
I really want the star to be the Moon of this photo.
Also, I wanna make it at Instagram format
because that's what I did originally.
Instagram format is 4x5.
I can go here, I put in 4, and put in 5.
Now I'm just gonna crop this photo.
I only want the Empire State building,
the Moon, and the One Freedom Tower to be in the shot.
Something like this, and press enter.
Also, the fact that I was at 150 mm when I shot this.
I forgot how much I was, let's check on Lightroom.
I think I was at 147 mm or something.
Yeah, 134 mm as 240.
The fact that I'm zooming in is gonna make it
that this Empire State building
is gonna be like if I shot it at 300.
That's why it matches well.
Anyway, I'm giving you this Moon.
You can add it with this technique in any of your photos.
If you do, please tag me at @Photoserge.
I would love to see what you do on Instagram.
Let me check compare to my original photo.
I cropped it more there and I think
I added more blue to the photo.
I can go here and I can crop.
You see that line here, I got rid of that.
So I'm just gonna crop a bit more so we don't see that.
And again, I think in the overall look,
I'm not gonna change the colors,
I actually like this sort of yellowish that I did.
I could add more blue, but you get the idea
then you can do whatever you want.
That works better because we really
focusing on the Empire State building,
the One Freedom Tower, and just the Moon.
Voila, have fun putting the Moon in your photos.
Alright guys, I hope you learned
something in Photoshop doing this.
Photoshop is such an amazing software.
Don't forget to download the Moon.
Don't forget to put it in your own photo.
And I will see you in another episode.
Mesdames and messieurs, au revoir.