Hot Sunrise From Mercury

January 15, 2014

Hot Sunrise From Mercury FinalHot Sunrise From Mercury FinalHot Sunrise From Mercury

The picture is intended to depict a view of the Sun from the planet Mercury which is the closest of the Planets to the Sun.

I wanted to achieve this image entirely photographically from my own images. No digital painting and no planet or star images from others like NASA.

Landscape Image

3 main layers were used. First for the landscape I used a picture taken from the side of the Caldera Colorada volcano, near Masdache, Lanzarote. There is a 45 minute walk round the base of the cone. One side is an unusual rich red, made up from cinder, rich in iron oxide. This image was taken with an 8mm fisheye. Processing was first in Camera RAW to adjust exposure and increase Clarity and Vibrance. I used Topast Adjust boost preset to enhance colours and detail.  The blue sky was removed with a selection.

The image below is the original image after processing

Hot Sunrise From Mercury LandscapeHot Sunrise From Mercury LandscapeHot Sunrise From Mercury

Sun Image

The next image was the Sun. I followed an online tutoriaI step by step although it was based on an earlier version of Photoshop. This was quite complex and rarther than go over it again here, if you are interested see http://www.devppl.com/forum/photoshop-tutorial-creating-a-sun-fire-planet-ss-part-3-vt2534.html  One point I discovered after research was that to use the elliptical marquee tool to draw a perfect circle from the centre requires that the smallest part of the drawing has to be started before holding down the shift and alt keys to constrain to a circle. Holding down the shift and alt keys at the start doesn’t work

The image below is the Sun after edits.

Hot Sunrise From Mercury SunHot Sunrise From Mercury SunHot Sunrise From Mercury

 Stars Image

The last image was a combination of various Star field images taken on various trips to take star trails. 3 images were used and pasted together in layers using the lighten layer blend mode so each image added to the previous one rather than overlaying it to provide a denser star field. I used some Photoshop Actions called Astronomy Tools to brighten the stars, enhance the colours and add some star effects.

The image below is the star field after edits.

Hot Sunrise From Mercury StarsHot Sunrise From Mercury StarsHot Sunrise From Mercury

 The star field was used as a base and selections of the landscape and planet pasted in. The image below is the final result.

Hot Sunrise From Mercury FinalHot Sunrise From Mercury FinalHot Sunrise From Mercury

Edwin Jones

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