Please help me fix a seam

eoren1

So I'm a PS-moron and I am trying to rework an old shot into a 'planet'. Problem is that I end up with a very ugly seam and cannot figure out how to get rid of it. I tried to 'fix' this with a big vertical swipe of the content aware healing brush (in CS5) set at a size of 100...ugly! Tried to learn about gradient masks but cannot get my head around it no matter how many tutorials I look at. I would greatly appreciate some tips on how to go about fixing a shot such as this. I'm hoping to do a series of 'planet' shots around town when the weather improves and would love to have a solid understanding of how to fix the inevitable seam.
Thanks in advance,
E

divamum

Disclaimer: I have no experience with this, I'm just thinking out loud at what I might try.

I would probably select the rh side and make it into a new layer (or copy/paste into a new layer), free transform the new layer to line it up in the middle and resize it so it was what I wanted (warp and distort can be might useful tools...), hit alt+mask (at the bottom of the layers palette) to add a black mask to the layer, and then paint it back on only where I needed it.

It might need merging down (onto another copy layer - I always try to avoid working on the BG layer simply because i've made a hash of it so many times!), and then perhaps some healing brush or precision clone work to clean it up further.

Patch tool can help blend work in too.

Another layer to even out the contrast/brightness might be needed afterwards too.

:lurk to see what others suggest!

Richard

I'd try selecting the left half, then copying it to a new layer and flip it horizontally. Then go back to the original layer and select the planet and apply it as a mask on the new layer. Then touch up as needed.

eoren1

I followed Richard's suggestions
Painted over most of the water. Had some areas of sky that I used the 'replace color' tool to fix.
What do you think?

basflt

i think some layers are not blended or aligned properly

edit / auto align layers
edit / auto blend layers

left and right border must blended so that they are the same