Earthshine with Crescent Moon Compilation - Need Help on Presentation

astrostu · Jun 8, 2008

This is a compilation of the 14% crescent moon from Friday. Both the sunlit part and Earth-lit part. I'm having doubts, though, about my display/compilation. In other words, I don't really like it.

Can anyone suggest a better way to display this (or post a mock-up - yes, I give permission to edit this photo)? The only restriction is that I want the aspect ratio to be 2:3.

Thanks!

STICKMAN · Jun 8, 2008

I really like it just the way you have it, very relaxing, yet powerfull but thats just me... Nice shots.............

astrostu · Jun 11, 2008

Thanks, Stickman.

But I'm still not thrilled with the composition. Any other ideas?

damian5000 · Jun 11, 2008

It's dramatic. I REALLY like the picture to the right (How/what did you capture it with) - but the picture on the left...something about it doesn't fit. Maybe the contrast is too much within the left moon.

damian5000 · Jun 11, 2008

Looking at this again --

Showing the two moons and having the title "light and dark" leads me to automatically believe you are saying the left photo is the light and the right is the dark.

What about decreasing the contrast slightly with the left photo and/or adding a 3rd photo? It's confusing, the title having "light and dark" and then the 2 photos...I'm not really sure how you're meaning the title to fit with the pictures.

astrostu · Jun 11, 2008

Damian - I've played around with different titles in the past, and none (including this one) are ones I'm satisfied with. The other main one had been "Earthshine and Moonshine." But "Moonshine" makes people think of illegal alcohol, and it's also not technically correct because moonshine is the reflection of the moon's light off of Earth, like when you can read a book with just the moon out.

"Light and Dark Sides" were meant to imply the "Sunlit" and "Earthlit" sides, where the latter is what people normally think of as the "Dark Side" of the moon. Hence light and dark.

So, now, about the contrast. Are you saying to lighten the earthshine part so that it's less dark in comparison with the saturated sunlit part?

LaFoto · Jun 11, 2008

Damian, you mean if he simply turned the words of the title into Dark and Light Sides of the Moon it'd be helped? I think it might help things, and maybe to tone down the photo that shows the earthlit dark part of the moon as much as can be done to still show the reflected earth light on it, but get less of the (naturally) overexposed glare of the sunlit part (???). Just wondering here.

As to the arrangement of the "two moons" (ok: two different exposures of our one and only dear moon :lovey:

) within the frame: makes me happy as is, maybe leaving more space around the entire arrangement might help matters a little. The top part of the sunlit-only moon gets pretty close to the frame. Maybe with just a tad more space for them to be in ??? Might that help?

damian5000 · Jun 11, 2008

astrostu said:
Damian - I've played around with different titles in the past, and none (including this one) are ones I'm satisfied with. The other main one had been "Earthshine and Moonshine." But "Moonshine" makes people think of illegal alcohol, and it's also not technically correct because moonshine is the reflection of the moon's light off of Earth, like when you can read a book with just the moon out.

"Light and Dark Sides" were meant to imply the "Sunlit" and "Earthlit" sides, where the latter is what people normally think of as the "Dark Side" of the moon. Hence light and dark.

So, now, about the contrast. Are you saying to lighten the earthshine part so that it's less dark in comparison with the saturated sunlit part?

I actually like the title, but the left moon - it's so bright on one side and the other side is visible - in my head I just think this is the light one (it's also on the left as is the word "Light" in the title). The other moon is very dark compared to the other one so naturally I associate it with "Dark" in the title...

"Dark and light sides of the moon" without the photo I think of the sunlit side and the earth lit side. But with the photo it makes a dual meaning for me... IDK, just my first impression.

re Contrast, I guess that might be the only possibly solution if the other side is naturally washed out in the orgi (which I didn't realize was the case), but then it would be even lighter...So..Laughing IDK. That's why I mentioned a 3rd moon... Because then the dual meaning is taken away.

LaFoto said:
Damian, you mean if he simply turned the words of the title into Dark and Light Sides of the Moon it'd be helped? I think it might help things, and maybe to tone down the photo that shows the earthlit dark part of the moon as much as can be done to still show the reflected earth light on it, but get less of the (naturally) overexposed glare of the sunlit part (???). Just wondering here.

No to the title part..I like the title, just with the photo I get a dual meaning from the words. What you said in the 2nd part was what I meant.

astrostu · Jun 11, 2008

LaFoto said:
Damian, you mean if he simply turned the words of the title into Dark and Light Sides of the Moon it'd be helped? I think it might help things, and maybe to tone down the photo that shows the earthlit dark part of the moon as much as can be done to still show the reflected earth light on it, but get less of the (naturally) overexposed glare of the sunlit part (???). Just wondering here.

damian5000 said:
re Contrast, I guess that might be the only possibly solution if the other side is naturally washed out in the orgi (which I didn't realize was the case), but then it would be even lighter...So..Laughing IDK. That's why I mentioned a 3rd moon... Because then the dual meaning is taken away.

Damian - the difference in exposure is about a factor of 500x between the two captures of the moon. Hence the directly sun-lit part is completely saturated in the original of the Earthshine one.

LaFoto or Damian ... care to post a mock-up of what you mean with the contrast? I think I have an idea, but I'm still not entirely certain I understand.

LaFoto said:
As to the arrangement of the "two moons" (ok: two different exposures of our one and only dear moon ) within the frame: makes me happy as is, maybe leaving more space around the entire arrangement might help matters a little. The top part of the sunlit-only moon gets pretty close to the frame. Maybe with just a tad more space for them to be in ??? Might that help?

So, shrink the moons within the frame (or expand the frame around the moons)?