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11/17/2005 04:14:19 PM · #1 |
I took this photo last night, and while I think it's okay, it's not really what I wanted.
Does anyone know of any tricks that can be used to get detail in both the moon AND whatever surrounds it? The only thing I can think of is to be lucky enough to catch it when it's up during the day. I love the trees framing it in silhouette, but I wish I didn't have to blow out the moon to get it. Any suggestions would be great- thanks!
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11/17/2005 04:17:42 PM · #2 |
| I get my best moon shots with a tripod and a polarizer filter .. hope that helps :) |
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11/17/2005 04:26:24 PM · #3 |
| I don't think it's possible to capture detail in a full moon AND capture dark foreground elements simultaneously unless you can block out the moon for a portion of a long exposure. Your best bet is to take two separate photos, exposing for each element, and combine them in post processing. |
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11/17/2005 04:40:29 PM · #4 |
I used two shots to make this one... it has probably been my biggest selling shot:
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11/17/2005 04:42:02 PM · #5 |
| That is SOOO going into my favorites, Alan! |
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11/17/2005 04:44:29 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by scalvert:
That is SOOO going into my favorites, Alan! |
Ditto! Great shot, Alan.
R. |
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11/17/2005 04:46:02 PM · #7 |
| You could try a ND (Neutral Density) Filter to block out the moons light allowing you to run a longer shutter speed without over exposing the moon. I have not tried this but it might work. |
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11/17/2005 04:49:26 PM · #8 |
Thanks! I'm frankly getting tired of seeing it... tomorrow is "Light-Up Night" in Pittsburgh, and I'm tempted to try to re-do it :)
Originally posted by bear_music:
Originally posted by scalvert:
That is SOOO going into my favorites, Alan! |
Ditto! Great shot, Alan.
R. |
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11/17/2005 04:55:20 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by shaver:
You could try a ND (Neutral Density) Filter to block out the moons light allowing you to run a longer shutter speed without over exposing the moon. I have not tried this but it might work. |
That might work if it were a radial, graduated ND filter, dark in the center, but an ungraduated ND will be no help as it darkens the entire image uniformly, and the more typical straight-gradation graduated ND wouldn't help in this shot, as some of the detail she's trying to preserve is even with or above the moon in the image frame.
R. |
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11/17/2005 04:57:46 PM · #10 |
Scalvert is right. You can't expose for the moon (which will blowout even with a hefty fraction of a second) and a good night landscape (which usually requires several seconds at least). Here are two shots, one each way:
 
The first is a single exposure of .7 seconds. The moon is too bright already and the skyline is just too dark. The second is a combo of two exposures.
The second is also my best-selling print. |
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11/17/2005 04:57:58 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by alansfreed:
I used two shots to make this one... it has probably been my biggest selling shot:
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Alan, is that moon "actual size" for the setting?
I guess in a situation like my shot I need the extra light from the moon in order to get the silhouettes of the trees. So it would be physically impossible for that photo.
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11/17/2005 04:58:01 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by scalvert:
That is SOOO going into my favorites, Alan! |
You and the moon Shannon, what is it with you and the moon? ;-)
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11/17/2005 04:58:35 PM · #13 |
Something I learned a while back - for full moon pictures, since they're usually long exposures, take them the day before full moon (or is it the day after? I forget now.) Anyway. Even on a not very long long exposure, the moon's movement will register and it will look slightly oval rather than perfect round. If you take it the day before, the movement will fill in the little gap and make it look quite round.
DISCLAIMER: I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure if it works, but that's what I learned.
Message edited by author 2005-11-17 16:59:07.
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11/17/2005 04:59:21 PM · #14 |
You have a digital camera; set it to manual and get giggy-wid-it! Take 2 pictures. One exposed for the forground and one exposed for the moon. Then combine theme in some photo editor. Also, make sure you use a good tripod.
If you want to take it in one picture, you can try popping on a flash to light up the forground. |
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11/17/2005 05:00:51 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by ahaze:
Alan, is that moon "actual size" for the setting? |
No, I exaggerated its size a bit for the effect. It is in the right place in the sky for the night I shot it, but I made it a little bigger. |
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11/17/2005 05:01:10 PM · #16 |
I always wondered how these shots were produced. I imagine all of them are composites then, huh? Good to know. I won't be killing myself trying to figure it out from now on. Just take two. :-)
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11/17/2005 05:02:09 PM · #17 |
| A better bet if you're determined is to suspend a carefully aligned opaque disk in front of your camera to block out the moon during most of a long exposure. Set your exposure for 20-30 seconds or whatever to get the trees right, and yank the disk away for the last second or two. If it's close to the camera, the DOF will blur out the edges of the disk and you should be able to capture both. It'll take some practice, though. |
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11/17/2005 05:03:00 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by scalvert:
A better bet if you're determined is to suspend a carefully aligned opaque disk in front of your camera to block out the moon during most of a long exposure. Set your exposure for 20-30 seconds or whatever to get the trees right, and yank the disk away for the last second or two. If it's close to the camera, the DOF will blur out the edges of the disk and you should be able to capture both. It'll take some practice, though. |
That's an interesting way to do it. I gotta try this.
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11/17/2005 05:03:58 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by jenesis:
I always wondered how these shots were produced. I imagine all of them are composites then, huh? Good to know. I won't be killing myself trying to figure it out from now on. Just take two. :-) |
Not all of them. It's possible to do properly-exposed moonrise shots at around the time of the full moon or just a little before, when afterglow is illuminating the landscape.
Robt. |
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11/17/2005 05:05:14 PM · #20 |
Here's another question, how do you get the focus right in the dark?? Is there a trick for this other than using a flashlight or something to light the subject to get focus? Most of the time the subject is to far away for the light source to reach anyways, say across a lake for example.
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11/17/2005 05:06:53 PM · #21 |
Maybe not perfect, but quite good (even if I say so myself):
details by the photo itself. |
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11/17/2005 05:08:41 PM · #22 |
Originally posted by jenesis:
Here's another question, how do you get the focus right in the dark?? Is there a trick for this other than using a flashlight or something to light the subject to get focus? Most of the time the subject is to far away for the light source to reach anyways, say across a lake for example. |
If the subject is that far (i.e. across the lake) focus to infinity. That should work (point the camera to the moon, and lock the focus) |
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11/17/2005 05:08:52 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by jenesis:
Here's another question, how do you get the focus right in the dark?? |
Focus manually or use the distance scale on your lens (if it has one). With large distances (like across a lake) the DOF will be so large that you only have to be "close enough." |
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11/17/2005 05:10:43 PM · #24 |
Not too shabby at all!
Originally posted by Gauti:
Maybe not perfect, but quite good (even if I say so myself):
details by the photo itself. |
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11/17/2005 06:14:37 PM · #25 |
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