From last night, C & C and advice please.

[Canuk]

1.

IMG_4238.jpg by Canuk313, on Flickr


2.

IMG_4209.jpg by Canuk313, on Flickr

I was originally trying to get a silhouette of the rig w/ the moon in focus in the background, but no matter what settings I tried I was unable to get the shot. If the moon was in focus, the rig was black and if the rig was silhouetted the the moon was blown out.
#1 was taken ISO 1000 @ 38mm f11 25secs w/ 24-70 f2.8L
#2 was taken ISO 320 @ 175mm f11 1/200 w/ Tamron 70-200 f2.8. I did not use mirror lock-up but did use remote shutter.

Thanks in advance for your critiques!
Now let me have it!

 

[Dominantly]

I like #2, good detail.

Did you do any processing on it? For something like this, a good highpass filter would be nice.

 

[Canuk]

On #2 I just cropped it, did a little smoothing and sharpening. I have the 30 day trial of Lightroom, and my editing needs a lot of work, but I'm trying to grasp it a little at a time.

 

[rgregory1965]

Moon could have used a 1 or 2 ev stops and then it would have looked more like this......I take one of the moon with spot metering and then take several more at lower exposures.....its funny how a camera can see things sometimes.

edited in lightroom 3

400iso, 300mm, F/5, spot, Handheld, 1/320

 

[bazooka]

I don't know if #1 is possible without some advanced technique. Have you considered light painting? You would still have to have a several second shutter speed so the moon wouldn't be super sharp, but you might still be able to properly expose it and the rig in one shot. Of you could hit it with a flash. Or you could blend exposures if that sort of thing interests you.

 

[Dominantly]

The one above is a bit soft/blurred/grainy.

 

[Canuk]

I was wondering if I hit the rig w/ a flash and still focussed on the moon if that would work. I will try that out here in the next couple days and see if how it works out.
Thanks again for all the tips.

 

[bazooka]

I was wondering if I hit the rig w/ a flash and still focussed on the moon if that would work. I will try that out here in the next couple days and see if how it works out.
Thanks again for all the tips.

It absolutely will work if your flash is powerful enough to light the rig and/or if you are close enough to it. If your flash is ETTL (automatic), just set your exposure manually for the moon and let the flash do it's thing. Because it's such an unusual scene (lots of black, but bright white as well), you'll probably have to mess with the flash exposure compensation, but it shouldn't take but a few tries.

 

[rambler]

Can you lighten the rig with a spot light? How close is it to you. When you set your exposure to the moon the camera thinks it is daylight. Have you tried HDR?