HDR merge, correcting for a moving object in the images.

[Kyle CMT]

I took a bracketed series of photos of a sunset with a crescent moon in the scene. My shutter speed is fast enough that I have a pretty sharp image of the moon in each of the 5 shots. But in the couple of seconds between shots, the moon moves several pixels from the previous shot.

I am using a tripod and the focal length was approximately 50-60mm.

After processing in HDR Pro, the final has 5 moon slivers, or crescent outlines in a small cluster.

Next, I tried using the Healing Brush to remove the moon in several of the images, but that resulted in the moon being completely being removed from the final image.

Next I loaded all five into separate layers, so that I could use Context Aware Move to move all the moons so that they were all perfectly overlapped. I just haven't had a chance to save them out to files again so that I can do the Merge to HDR Pro again. I am worried this will result in a slightly blurred moon.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[D Fosse]

I'd just stack the images, zoom in and nudge them manually with the arrow keys. Should be quickly done.

Select, copy to new layer, nudge and merge down is probably the fastest.

[JohanElzenga]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/D+Fosse  wrote

I'd just stack the images, zoom in and nudge them manually with the arrow keys. Should be quickly done.

Select, copy to new layer, nudge and merge down is probably the fastest.

The images were shot from a tripod, so the images themselves should not be nudged. One could cut the moon to a separate layer for each image, content-aware fill the wholes in the original layers, align the 'moon' layers, and then merge each moon back onto its original layer. Then save out the layers as files for the HDR merge.

[D Fosse]

Yes, that's what I'm saying - but I edited the post, minutes after posting it, to make it a little clearer.

[Kyle CMT]

Johan, Content Aware Move allows you to do that in place. I am in the process of saving the layers back out to files again to retry the merge.

I am also wondering, if I made each layer a Smart Object before re-positioning the moons, would that save a few steps in saving the images again. I haven't worked with smart objects beyond a few basic standard uses.

[JohanElzenga]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Kyle+CMT  wrote

Johan, Content Aware Move allows you to do that in place. I am in the process of saving the layers back out to files again to retry the merge.

I am also wondering, if I made each layer a Smart Object before re-positioning the moons, would that save a few steps in saving the images again. I haven't worked with smart objects beyond a few basic standard uses.

AFAIK, you can’t content-aware move part of a smart object.

[JohanElzenga]

Did you try the 'Remove Ghosts' option in Merge to HDR Pro? You do not mention that as one of the things you tried.

[Kyle CMT]

Sorry, I realized that I left that out.  Yes I did. Actually made it worse in some ways.

[Lumigraphics]

Copy the moon from ONE of the images and paste it in place. The whole thing doesn't have to be HDR.

[Kyle CMT]

Johan, I figured that out after posting, realizing as soon as one edits a smart object, you don't have access to the stack. lol

Lumi, you mean paste it in after doing the merge, right?

Thanks to every one, I guess sometimes there are no shortcuts.