Challenge:Sky (Expert Editing) Collection:Other shots Camera:Canon PowerShot S2 IS Location: National Mall in Washington, DC, USA Date: Dec 11, 2006 Aperture: 5.6 (Monument) ISO: 50 Shutter: 4s (Monument) Galleries:Sky, Travel Date Uploaded: Dec 14, 2006
I had a great time on the National Mall on Monday night - took many shots of the Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, and U.S. Capitol. I had two goals: shoot my For Sale entry as political commentary and get something for the sky challenge.
I've shot the moon enough to know that you can't get good exposure on it and things on the ground at the same time; either the moon is blown (see my For Sale entry) or the ground's too dark. Since this image had to use more than one shot, it was perfect for the expert rules.
This is a three-shot composite, all of which I took Monday night (I've listed the shooting settings for each piece)
1) Washington Monument, buildings in the distance, and ground
I used a brightness/contrast layer to brighten it up so you could see the "sky glow." Normally, that's ugly, but in this case, it lets you see the trees, which add some visual interest. I then used a selective color layer and a gradient to limit the brightness to near the ground.
The contrast enhancement raised noise not visible in the original, so I used noise reduction to control it again. A little sharpening on the monument was all that was left.
F/5.6, 4s, ISO 50
2) Moon
I used a color layer to make it orange and sharpened it a bit. The large size comes from reducing the monument piece first, then pasting in the moon.
F/8.0, 1/50s, ISO 50
3) Stars
The star field is actually one star shot copied several times with rotations and movements to fill the sky. It's really a shot of the constellation Orion, which has a very distinctive 3-star line making his belt. I didn't want people to realize I'd copied the stars, so I cloned out the belt in each piece. I hope the manipulations randomized the stars enough. Some sharpening brought them out of the black.
F/2.7, 15s, ISO 50
This was a lot of fun, and I like the way it turned out. I expect this to be a very high scoring challenge, so who knows how it'll stack up.
Statistics
Place: 31 out of 123 Avg (all users): 6.3547 Avg (commenters): 7.0435 Avg (participants): 5.8841 Avg (non-participants): 6.5204 Views since voting: 1702 Views during voting: 546 Votes: 265 Comments: 29 Favorites: 2 (view)
Jeff,
I wondered if this one was yours while voting. I gave it an 8 due to very strong composition, technically difficult, and beautiful stars on streetlights. The problem I have is that the moon neither looks quite real nor obviously fake. I know this may sound nitpicky, but the orange also seems to clash a little bit with the red "eyes" atop the Washington monument. Just my .02. Overall, a very well done post-process on a difficult shot.
Sometimes an image hits hard the second it's viewed and this is one for me. You've taken a pretty obvious idea and made it work for you in a simply unique and breathtaking way.
Outstanding in every way and my pic for top honors.
I guess you could say the sky has an effect in this one (sarcasm) Wow! Nice shot. Great colors and focus. Loads of details. Perhaps a bit longer crop to include a bit more of the city but none the less, an awseome pic. Into the ten pile with it :)
Man, that's extreme :-) For me the image suffers greatly by being too tight on the bottom. Personally, I think if the moon were a thjrid smaller that would work better also. It's very nicely done.
As a nit-picking note, the "Harvest Moon" is defined as the full moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox, so this isn't one...
The concept is excellent. The first impression is WOW! The moon shot is lovely. There is a different tone to the monument shot (focus and color not quite as good). They don't quite fit together. 8
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