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I used two photos of the recent supermoon and combined them. The result is OK (link below). I was unable to achieve a look I wanted, where haze causes darker areas of the moon surface to assume the same color as nearby sky, and only brighter areas of the moon stand out. I tried selecting the shadow areas and using "Color to Alpha" in GIMP, but the effect was very harsh. Any tips?

First version of supermoon photo

Here is an image I found that is close to what I would like. It is property of Josh Blash (Rye, New Hampshire). moon photo by Josh Blash

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    \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to the Photography StackExchange. First, I'm not sure I know what you mean by "haze effect". Could you elaborate? Maybe a blow up of the area where you think this occurs? It might also be useful to see the original photos. \$\endgroup\$
    – damned truths
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 1:39

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There are some variants on your approach which would be less harsh, although I'm not convinced that you'll get the effect you want without applying some kind of haze effect to the whole sky.

  1. Use your current approach and apply a curve to the layer mask to make it less noticeable.
  2. Change the layer mode of the moon to "Lighten only"
  3. Place a second copy of the sky over the moon with layer mode "Lighten only" and play with its opacity.
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  • \$\begingroup\$ Peter, the content and timing of your reply are spot on. I recently realized that I have never studied/explored the various modes in layer palette. Here is incentive to address that! (If I get a noteworthy result, I will post a link.) Thanks all. \$\endgroup\$
    – user722951
    Commented Nov 21, 2016 at 16:56

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