Moon and Crosses

RavingMac · Feb 23, 2012

My wife had band practice at Church this evening. Having some free time on my hands and my DSLR I decided to scout around for some interesting shots. Unfortunately I didn't have my tripod so a lot of my shots weren't keepers.

Here is one of the best.

vansmith · Feb 23, 2012

I do miss this sometimes. I'm a little further out of downtown now but the light pollution used to be so bad that the sky just looked like a gross "orangy black" haze. Even now, it's still slightly hazy.

RavingMac · Feb 23, 2012

vansmith said:
I do miss this sometimes. I'm a little further out of downtown now but the light pollution used to be so bad that the sky just looked like a gross "orangy black" haze. Even now, it's still slightly hazy.

The sky was what first attracted me to this scene. I couldn't really do it justice because the long shutter speeds made it almost impossible to get a blur-free shot.
In retrospect I should have upped the ISO, but I was also halfway experimenting on doing long exposures without the tripod.

vansmith · Feb 23, 2012

I have no idea what any of that meant so I'll agree.

There's a sense of peaceful serenity in that picture. Ah man, you've got me missing the solace that comes with living outside of the city. Thanks.

RavingMac · Feb 23, 2012

vansmith said:
I have no idea what any of that meant so I'll agree.

There's a sense of peaceful serenity in that picture. Ah man, you've got me missing the solace that comes with living outside of the city. Thanks.

Thank you . . .

McYukon · Feb 24, 2012

Ah man, you've got me missing the solace that comes with living outside of the city. Thanks.

Bwahahahaha

vansmith · Feb 24, 2012

This might be the only time you win McYukon so enjoy it now.

pendlewitch · Feb 25, 2012

Razormac said:
The sky was what first attracted me to this scene. I couldn't really do it justice because the long shutter speeds made it almost impossible to get a blur-free shot.
In retrospect I should have upped the ISO, but I was also halfway experimenting on doing long exposures without the tripod.

Interesting striations there and nice to see that the moon looks the same there as it did here!

I've found that pre-sets (Night time, Starry Sky, that kind of thing) are really useful for this kind of shot when you haven't got the time or kit to get set up correctly.

RavingMac · Feb 25, 2012

pendlewitch said:
Interesting striations there and nice to see that the moon looks the same there as it did here!

I've found that pre-sets (Night time, Starry Sky, that kind of thing) are really useful for this kind of shot when you haven't got the time or kit to get set up correctly.

My biggest problem with shots like this, is though I understand the elements of exposure I'm still enough of a beginner that when I am in a challenging situation like this and concentrating on framing the shot the way I want, it isn't second nature to me and I forget.

It just never occurred to me (though I know better) that I could have gotten a lot more usable shutter speed by bumping ISO to 1600 or even 2500 instead of the 400 I shot these at.

Wasn't until I got home and was reviewing the shots that I remembered and smacked myself (not too hard). Oh well, that is how you learn . . . There will be other nights. And next time I'll bring my tripod.

EDIT: Just to be clear (I'm not always), I pretty much got the exposure I was looking for, but at the expense of to slow a shutter speed. I started by selecting the aperture I wanted, then switching to Manual and dialing back the shutter speed until I got the right (for what I wanted exposure). Have no clue why I never thought about ISO until too late.

pendlewitch · Feb 25, 2012

Razormac said:
My biggest problem with shots like this, is though I understand the elements of exposure I'm still enough of a beginner that when I am in a challenging situation like this and concentrating on framing the shot the way I want, it isn't second nature to me and I forget.

It just never occurred to me (though I know better) that I could have gotten a lot more usable shutter speed by bumping ISO to 1600 or even 2500 instead of the 400 I shot these at.

Wasn't until I got home and was reviewing the shots that I remembered and smacked myself (not too hard). Oh well, that is how you learn . . . There will be other nights. And next time I'll bring my tripod.

EDIT: Just to be clear (I'm not always), I pretty much got the exposure I was looking for, but at the expense of to slow a shutter speed. I started by selecting the aperture I wanted, then switching to Manual and dialing back the shutter speed until I got the right (for what I wanted exposure). Have no clue why I never thought about ISO until too late.

Razor,

This is photography.I am no great shakes myself. It is a huge discipline and to be honest (my opinion) there is that much science involved these days that you can easily lose the plot in the physics and electronics of it all.
The ISO's you speak of are uber-technical and I take my hat off to you because this a genre all on it's own. The best images that I have seen have some decent background contrast i.e. subjects shot in the shade vignetted with diffuse daylight.
I've always struggled with nightscapes due to the lack of subject to focus on with the rule of thirds in mind. The moon as a subject on my attempts always seemed to look like a pig in a poke. The black surrounded by black is just so difficult to render.

Err..better go now the misses is just serving dinner up

Moon and Crosses

RavingMac

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vansmith

Senior Member

RavingMac

Well-known member

vansmith

Senior Member

RavingMac

Well-known member

McYukon

vansmith

Senior Member

pendlewitch

RavingMac

Well-known member

pendlewitch

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