Need help replacing blown out moon

[tickintime]

I was shooting the moon last night, and wanted to somehow get a properly exposed moon into the same shot as 'visible' cloud cover. I liked this cloud formation the best as it frames the moon. However, when I try to use layer masks to place the good moon in place of the blown out moon, I get halo's. The blacks also don't match, I couldn't clone as the blacks are not the same and quickly messing with curves I lost to much cloud detail (when I tried blackening).

I am at a loss on what to do to achieve the look I want. I know I could reshoot a moonless area, but then I would not have the same framing effect from the light to the moon.

Finally, how is the moon only shot? Is it as sharp as my lens will allow? Any comments feedback, etc?


Larger: First Quarter Moon




Larger: Blown Out Moon With Clouds

[zona5101]

you might take a look at this tutorial... basically sandwich and align two layers and erase through one to get to the other...maybe you did that and got the halos you described...

Auto-Align Layers - The Best of Both Worlds| Free Photoshop Video Tutorials | The Digital Photography Connection