Moon tonight

[RyanMTaylor]

Hey guys, I heard the moon was supposed to be especially large tonight so I went out for about an hour. I played with using my flash to expose the trees surrounding it but I'm not really sure what I was doing wrong. Here is a shot after cropping and sharpening though.

I wish I could have put something else in the frame, but as I said I didn't really succeed at exposing it. Any ideas on what I could be doing wrong? My shutter was open long enough 1/16 to get the flash light in. It's not like I set it to 1/4000 or anything.

I set my 580EX II to +3 EC and held it about 10 feet from the trees facing upwards.

 

[AnthonyCorbo]

I thought the moon was huge today, anyways i love the photo would have been sweet with some starts but i still like it:thumbup: good job

 

[Jaszek]

great shot. Just came back from work (it's 2:11 AM) and I'm too tired to go out and shoot. I heard there was supposed to be a big meteor shower today (the 13th)

 

[gob144]

wow you caputured the moon great im glad you screwed up with putting other stuff in it the moon is great by its self. what lens did you use.

 

[Markw]

The moon was closer to the Earth than its been in 15 years last night at 12:18 AM. Lucky to get such shots.

Mark

 

[lids369]

im guessing he used the 70-200

 

[astrostu]

... Here is a shot after cropping and sharpening though. ...

You have sharpened it way too much, a common thing to do. You need to back off on the sharpening because the result you got is that the moon's features look blobby, almost like you applied a ripple or water color filter. In addition, I think you should back off on the contrast a little, but I'd have to see it without so much sharpening in order to really give advice on the contrast.

Please note that this is not personal criticism, just advice on what you should do differently. Over the past few months, I have seen numerous people post moon shots that are over-processed or under-exposed or some other such technical problems, and yet people on this board praise them as wonderful. I have decided to stop ignoring it and take a more proactive approach on helping people properly photograph and process celestial objects.

The moon was closer to the Earth than its been in 15 years last night at 12:18 AM. Lucky to get such shots.

That is incorrect. The moon is at perigee (its closest approach to Earth) once per orbit, or once per lunar month. The catch is that perigee precesses around Earth and so changes from lunar month to lunar month. What was key about last night is that the time of the full moon (12/12/08 at 16:37 GMT) happened to coincide within nearly 5 hours of perigee (12/12/08 at 21:39 GMT).

Hence, it was the largest full moon in about 15 years, not the largest moon. It was 33'31" (0.5253°) in diameter.

 

[RyanMTaylor]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I appreciate your crit on the oversharpening and all that, astrostu.

Looking at it again I totally agree with you. Even as I was doing it I was pretty unsure of what I should do. This is my first attempt at shooting the moon. One of my friends said something about it being real big so I went out and took some shots.
I'm gonna have to keep a lot of that stuff in mind and take a look online for other moon shots with the same issues.
I had to crop it so much too that it looks fake, especially with all the sharpening and contrast increase I did.

lids369 yep, I used my 70-200L f/4.

Also, astrostu, don't ever shut up about something you see as a problem or general advice, at least on my photos. I need all the help I can get and I appreciate it completely.