Photographers Notes
I got a new tele-converter for my Nikon and wanted to try it out on something hard. I mated it to my 70-200 lens, and then to my camera and set out with my tripod and self timer at “Oh Dark Hundred” to shoot the moon. Wife was not happy about the alarm going off but she puts up with me.
For a first attempt I am pleased. However there are things I am not yet pleased with: overall sharpness of the original image; white outline around the edge of the moon; and color balance. I worked pretty hard to correct some of this but with basic editing; there are some things I can’t fix.
I would have re-shot but fog moved in over the lake and obscured the moon. Actually it obscured everything, but I digress.
Post Processing
Resize – Genuine Fractals
Sharpen – Lab Color Method
Desaturate – Hue/Saturation
Adjustment Layer – Selective Color
Reduce Opacity
Rotate Arbitrary
Crop
Levels
Save for Web
Camera Data
Nikon D70
2005/12/10
JPEG (8-bit) Fine
Image Size: Large (3008 x 2000)
Lens: VR 70-200mm F/2.8 G
Focal Length: 400mm
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Metering Mode: Spot
1/125 sec - F/9.5
Exposure Comp.: -1.5 EV
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Optimize Image: Vivid
White Balance: Auto
AF Mode: AF-S
Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
Color Mode: Mode IIIa (sRGB)
Tone Comp: Auto
Hue Adjustment: 0°
Saturation: Normal
Sharpening: Auto
Image Comment:
Noise Reduction: OFF
Statistics
Place: 32 out of 115 Avg (all users): 5.8347 Avg (commenters): 6.4000 Avg (participants): 5.3636 Avg (non-participants): 5.9188 Views since voting: 1666 Views during voting: 563 Votes: 363 Comments: 16 Favorites: 1 (view)
Turned out nicer than you may be happy with but now you know how hard it is to get a good moon shot. Seems so simple when you start out .....
The 2x looks pretty good though.
Doesn't seem quite sharp enough. Although moon shots can be fun, I've seen so many that you need something unusual or different to stand out if you enter them into a competition. The composition here really doesn't say anything new to me.
Looks pretty good to me... the settings I use to get lunar shots are:
ISO 100
F/8.0
1/250 sec
Only real dislike abot this is that if it were a fuil moon (where my eyes are taking me out of the picture) the whole moon would not fit in correctly. I would have preffered to be pulled back a little and the moon sat on one of the rule of thirds lines in the frame - personal prefernce though, good luck.
I have heard that photography of the moon is better with a half moon as the contrast is better on the surface. I see now that that is true. A moving shot. 10
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