A Church and the Moon - C&C Please

MohaimenK · Jul 27, 2010

This was about an half an hour ago. I was driving home and noticed the full moon and the church so I tried to get a shot. C&C would be appreciated!

tirediron · Jul 28, 2010

A good idea, but one very difficult to execute effectively. You know it's the moon because you took the picture. If you look at it objectively, tha moon could just as easily be a streetlight in the background. The problem is you're dealing with a VERY bright object, the full moon, and a relatively dark one, the church.

There are two other ways you could attmtp this which might afford better results. One would be to shoot it as an HDR - with say six images 1 1/3 stops apart, or for the absolute best results, shoot the church and the moon separately and then composite them together - who said pictures don't lie?

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

AlexL · Jul 28, 2010

most of the church is really without any light...... and it takes a large part of the photo.

MohaimenK · Jul 28, 2010

AlexL said:
most of the church is really without any light...... and it takes a large part of the photo.

Yup, that was the only part lit up. There's an HDR version I tried with it. Never took HDR at night before. Although I like the original more as my personal choice. I like how one part is lit up. That becomes my focus point in the picture. But thanks also for your C&C.

Robin Usagani · Jul 28, 2010

the HDR is way better

Idahophoto · Jul 28, 2010

I like the HDR far better. Your problem here is simple the difference for the exposure of the moon and the church are very different. Moons are weird to photograph because your camera will not read it properly. For my moon shots I use the sunny 16 rule as a guide. The 16 refers to your aperture so set it there. Now check your ISO and set your shutter to match it. If its ISO 200 your using set your shutterpeed to 1/250 and there is your exposure. I find this most helpful though it will probably need more fine tuning so be ready to bracket but this will put you close to the proper exposure. Next shot do F/16 125 followed by F/16 1/60 of a sec and so on till you are happy with it.

Now the the church. The big problem here I see is almost the same thing one area is more lit than the other so it to will need fine tuning. I would probably take two readings one for the dark area and one for the lit area and then balance it off. Bracket to fine tune it. Then its PS time baby to put it together. You could also Do a real HDR shot which is to take shots of the dark and light area then run it in photomatic. I would probably try both ways and see which one I liked better. then add the moon. I would also clone out the fence, the bench and probably the top tree branch ( I think the lower part works good) to make the photo more clean. Overall I think you did a great job and I really like you composition here. This is a tough shot I have done similar myself with mixed results so hopfully this will help. Great job

MohaimenK · Jul 28, 2010

^^ Now that's what I call a C&C! Thanks for that info! I did take seperate pictures of the moon which came perfect for moon shot. I'll look up how to match ISO to shutter speed. For now, I take tons of shots in different ISO and shutter speeds that way I have choices when I go home and not stuck with one picture.

The church has spot lights for that white part. Everything else is dark. I will try that shot another day. As far as fence and bench, I'm not that good in PS yet to clone them out. Maybe Schwettylens can help me on that :mrgreen: