In this tutorial, I will show you how to convert an ordinary photo of our moon step by step into the blood moon that you see below:

Tutorial Author: Maxwell Langdon - PixelHiveDesign.com

What is the purpose of this tutorial?
The main idea is to learn various photoshop skills while having fun. As you follow the steps, you'll see how combining simple effects can transform an ordinary photo into a work of art. It just takes some creativity and patience. Photoshop affords us the ability to try different possibilities without worrying about permanent damage to our work, use that to your advantage and experiment.

We will create the blood moon from the original moon image below:

Download blood_moon.png

Open the moon.png in Adobe Photoshop and expand the canvas to give us some space to work.
Image > Canvas Size...
Size: 465 x 465 (Size of my example)

Duplicate the Moon layer
Layer > Duplicate Layer...
Name the new layer "Moon".

Select the layer underneath the new 'Moon' Layer, rename it 'Background' and select and delete the moon.
Select > All
Edit > Delete

Lastly, use the paint bucket tool to fill in the background layer with black. Now the moon is on a separate layer and ready for effects.

The first special effect we'll add is the planetary glow. We will have the sun light the moon brighter on one side. So we can't just apply the glow to the current 'Moon' Layer because we are going to fine tune the glow afterwards. So let's duplicate the moon layer again to keep the special effects separate from the original moon rendering.

So select the 'Moon' Layer and duplicate it again.
Layer > Duplicate...

Rename the layer 'Glow' and drag it below the 'Moon' Layer. See below:

Open the Layer Blending Options: Right click the layer and select "Blending Options" or
Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options...

Outer Glow:

You should now have a moon with a uniform glow, we will fix that in a moment.

To fine tune the glow, we are going to use the eraser tool with the following settings:

Now making sure your 'Glow' Layer is selected, begin erasing the outer edge of the moon where you want the glow reduced. Start on the bottom right of the moon. You will have to erase several times to completely remove the glow. You can lower the opacity setting of the eraser for even finer control. Just remember you must erase the moon that the glow effect is coming off of, not the glow itself.

In this next step you will learn some advanced selection methods. In a series of commands we will create a selection that matches a portion of the moon perfectly and then fades as it reaches the outermost edges. We will save the selection to reuse for additional effects. Here we go:

Select the circle selection tool.
Hold down shift to maintain a perfect aspect ratio and select the area of the moon for the shadow effect. Example selection below:

Now we'll intersect this selection with the actual moon shape. While holding down Ctrl + Shift + Alt, yes 3 buttons at once, click on the 'Moon' Layer. If you did it right, you will have the selection below:

Now we'll feather the selection effectively fading the selection on all sides over a period of 20 pixels.
Select > Feather...

You will not notice much of a difference in the selection ants until we start applying the special effects.

Let's save this selection before we go any further:
Select > Save Selection...
Name it 'moon_shadow'.

There now we can work without worrying about losing the selection.

You should still have the selection active. If not load it:
Select > Load Selection...
and select the 'moon_shadow' from the 'channel' dropdown.

There are several ways we could make a shadow but for this tutorial we are going after extra control and a particular type of shadow. You will see and appreciate what I mean in a minute.

With the 'Moon' Layer selected and the complex selection active, create a new levels adjustment layer...
Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels...

As you drag the histogram's low range slider to the right, the range of dark colors increases in the affected area. You'll notice an interesting advantage to this shadow approach... full control. Take a look at the result below, notice that the brightest whites stayed white because we did not move the high range slider. In my opinion, it is more interesting than simply blacking everything out with a consistent shadow technique. This technique also allows you to go back into the levels and adjust them at any time.

The blood coloring is accomplished by applying another adjustment layer using our complex 'moon_shadow' selection. We only want the coloring to affect the shaded area, so load the 'moon_shadow' selection again.
Select > Load Selection...
and select the 'moon_shadow' from the 'channel' dropdown.

We want the coloring to be affected by the 'Shadow' layer, so click the 'Moon' Layer before creating the color balance adjustment layer...
Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance...

Since we created the coloring on a separate layer, we can adjust the color at any time. It's good practice to keep your effects on separate layers for this reason.

We now have a completed Blood Moon and we just need finishing touches and an environment. I'll show you how I choose to finish up the piece by adding a lens flare, some shading touch up and lastly a realistic star field background.

Lens Flare:
For a dramatic highlight, we can add a lens flare.

Create a new layer above all of the current layers:
Name it 'Flare'.
Use the paint bucket tool to fill it with Black.
Change the Blending Mode to 'Screen' in the 'Layers Pane'.
Render a Lens Flare.
Filter > Render > Lens Flare...

Move the flare into position and I choose to erase parts of the flare with the 'Eraser Tool' and lower the layer opacity to 80%.

Shadow Touchup:
Next I decided to touch up the shading on the moon. Take a look at the right most side where it starts to get light again. Although it looks interesting, it isn't realistic, so I added a layer above the 'Shadow' adjustment layer and darkened it.

Ctrl+Click the 'Moon' Layer to select just the Moon shape.
Add a new layer above the 'Shadow' adjustment layer.
Select the paint brush tool, set foreground color to black, opacity to 20% and paint over the right edge of the moon.

Star Field Environment:
Now I wanted an environment, the solid black just doesn't cut it, so I found an excellent tutorial on creating star fields. I recommend creating a new document and following the Greg Martin's - Realistic Star Field Tutorial. Once finished, copy the completed star field to the Blood Moon scene. Or you can download what I ended up with below:

Here's my final Blood Moon with Fantasy Effects piece

Well I hope you had fun and learned a few tricks along the way. You might consider expanding the work by adding more canvas space and planets. Maybe add some ground reference and make it appear as if your looking up into the night scene from another planet. As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me on my personal site, PixelHiveDesign.com. You will find more of my tutorials here.

Tutorial Author: Maxwell Langdon
Co-founder: TutorialQuest.com
Owner: PixelHiveDesign.com

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