Moon rising over ocean.

[Nix725]

This is my first long exposure image; as well as my first post. I took this picture around 9:30PM when the moon had a nice reflection over the ocean. Any advice to make this image even better would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ZacMan1987]

The moon is very overexposed. If you're looking for the blur of the long exposure, you need to make your aperture smaller (higher F number). I think you could easily bring out more detail in the moon without losing anything.

It is very good for a first try though! Keep it up.

 

[Nix725]

Even with a smaller apeture it was super over exposed and the rest was too dark. I may try a short exposure time next time. This shot was with a 30 sec shutter speed and about 5.6 apeture.

I see what you're saying though. I need to mess around some more to get the moon not so blown out.

 

[ZacMan1987]

It's a challenging situation probably best resolved by PP or a graduated density filter. With a GD filter, you can put the darker portion up top, and use the clear part on the ocean.

 

[Nix725]

Interesting. Thank you for the advice!

Well I took all the whites out in Photoshop and it was still super overexposed; so I am guessing the picture is a total loss on the overexposed moon situation

 

[Jaszek]

Also you could've lowered the ISO. You had it on 800 ISO.

 

[Nix725]

Also you could've lowered the ISO. You had it on 800 ISO.

Awesome I will keep that in mind.

 

[epp_b]

Ignore these geeks, these some really ignorant comments. The burning effect that the overexposed moon creates is awesome and it creates quite an interesting mood in the photo.

The moon is actually a reasonably bright object that calls for an approximate exposure of 1/125 at f/8 and ISO 200. Any longer and you'll simply get a white circle.