Star Light, Star Bright

On Saturday night, after a wonderful, cozy day in the house, we got ourselves out to go into Monza - I wanted to capture the lights. I must be honest, I wasn't feeling too inspired by them. I know, shocking, but even with me sometimes that happens. So I played around with creating some intentional bokeh by shooting out of focus. It wasn't until I got home and saw the two images  side-by-side in the computer, out of focus and in focus, that I really got excited. Sometimes something new just hits you out of the blue - I wondered if I could combine them for an interesting effect. What you see above is the result, and I love it.

Here's how I did it...I started with the "out of focus" bokeh photo in Photoshop Elements, this one:

Then I pulled the "in focus" one in, this one, as a layer above the "out of focus" photo:

I combined them by using a blending mode of soft light, at 75%. Finally, I stretched and tilted and adjusted the "in focus" photo until the stars closely overlayed the "out of focus" ones. These were taken handheld, so while they were taken from the same location and angle with the same zoom, they are slightly different compositions and needed to be matched up. If I had used a tripod (heaven forbid!), I would not have needed this last step.

I tried lots of different blending modes and opacities, they all came out slightly different - the one I'm sharing today is the one I liked best. Let me know what you think!

I interrupt my regularly scheduled participation in 9 Muses Musing because I wanted to share this photo for Sweet Shot Tuesday and Touch Up Tuesday. And, to be honest, I also didn't have anything specific in mind for today's prompt of FAMILY. :) Be sure to stop by and see all the other shared stories on FAMILY  at Mortal Muses though! Tomorrow's prompt is CANDLE.