First attempt at the moon. CC

PropilotBW · Dec 10, 2015

I finally had an opportunity away from the city lights where the conditions were just absolutely perfect for a moon shot.

What do you think?

astroNikon · Dec 10, 2015

Nice for your first try.

We've had about 50 feet of thin mist here lately at night and early morning due to the temperatures. If you stand on the roof of a house it's clear for being near the city. But at ground level you barely see the bright stars and moon details are washed out.

PropilotBW · Dec 10, 2015

astroNikon said:
Nice for your first try.

We've had about 50 feet of thin mist here lately at night and early morning due to the temperatures. If you stand on the roof of a house it's clear for being near the city. But at ground level you barely see the bright stars and moon details are washed out.

Thanks!
I'm sure I'll try another attempt someday.

dannylightning · Dec 10, 2015

not bad at all, looks about like my first try. i find shooting it before the sky is completely dark gives me the best results and than i just move the black slider or what ever and the sky looks black.

here is a shot i did when it was just starting to get dark, the sky was kind of blue still, i think when the moon is a little less bright its easier to shoot.

DSC_1547 by Daniel Caldwell, on Flickr

killerseaguls · Dec 10, 2015

Wow

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jim Walczak · Dec 11, 2015

Good job for a first attempt!

Here's my contribution.....

I shot this one back in 2006 and if I remember correctly, it's actually a "stack" of 6 images that I processed using AstroStack. The original images were actually shot thru my home made 60mm telescope...Bushnell tube, Simmons primary, Meade 1 1/4 focuser, etc....thru a 40mm eye piece. I -think- I used the Canon 40D for this one with my Tamron 28-80mm, but it could have been the old Rebel XT. After the stack, the image was finished in Photoshop, including an extra little bit of sharpening and the rotation (did the rotation strict for aesthetic value).

PropilotBW · Dec 11, 2015

Thanks! Just wondering if I could get some CC on the photo? Did I overexpose?
One after-thought. I did forget to turn off the VR for the shot. I don't think it made a huge difference...but still bothersome to think about.

tirediron · Dec 11, 2015

Okay folks, let's remember asked for C&C, not a 'show your moon' shot, 'kay? Thanks! :icon_thumbsup:

PropilotBW · Dec 11, 2015

tirediron said:
Okay folks, let's remember asked for C&C, not a 'show your moon' shot, 'kay? Thanks!

Thanks, I don't mind contributions...just wondering why those other 2 posts look a lot deeper in detail than mine. What can I do differently in-camera and in post processing to produce those results?

PropilotBW · Dec 11, 2015

Here's a second edit. I decreased the exposure, decreased ORANGE and YELLOW saturation, and increased the clarity and sharpness.

tirediron · Dec 11, 2015

PropilotBW said:
... What can I do differently in-camera and in post processing to produce those results?

It may be partly a function of the lens; a 500mm f4 will give you much different results than a 55-300 with a 1.4 TC on it. As well, you cropped much tighter, so detail is larger, and maybe add a touch of sharpening?

Samanthaaa · Dec 11, 2015

Here was mine. I love to shoot the moon, I use a Sony HX300.. it has a 50x zoom but I'm lookint into upgrading to a SLR or DSLR.

Jim Walczak · Dec 12, 2015

As far as C&C, again for a first attempt, I think it's well done. Just looking at it this morning, the original does look a bit over-exposed and was lacking in sharpness, but the edit does look better. Looking at the exif data, it does look like the aperture was set f.6.7....I might stop that down just a hair. Not sure about Olympus lenses, but more often than not a lens's "sweet spot" is usually around f/8'ish...it -might- give you just a bit more sharpness. Also, without seeing the original it's a hard call and I'm not really familiar with Olympus lenses at all, however with many of the 70-300mm lenses I've used, they can get a bit soft on the long side...it might be worth trying a bit less zoom, then cropping in...again it might give you just a bit more sharpness. This is just my own opinion, but with stuff like astro and lunar photography, every last bit of edge you can get regarding sharpness usually helps.

Now I can't speak to others, but again in the case of my own shot up there, I did use a small telescope for mine along with a program called "AstroStack"...I do a bit of the amateur astronomy thing and would very much like to get into some more serious astro-photography work at some point, so it's a nice program to have. That said, I'm pretty sure there's still some free stacking programs out there (Registax for example), so for anyone interested in stuff like lunar or astro photography, it might be worth looking into...good stacking software does a couple of things that Photoshop doesn't.

Just my $.02.