2/22/02 Detroit Skyline Wide Angle

This is a photo I took the other day of the Detroit skyline. The moon

came in, but my camera gave it a star effect. Any ideas how to make

it just a moon without that starlike effect?

 

Also, any comments/constructive criticism is appreciated.

 

Thanks.

Horizon is tilted. Maybe shorten the exposure time, or close up your aperature a bit. Personally, I'd like a tighter crop on the buildings and just leave out the 'stuff' on the left.

Well the most obvious would be to get your camera level next time. Nice shot though.

The horizon isn't tilted. I'm looking downriver and the shoreline slants that way. Thanks for the comments. I do have a shot of it cropped. I wanted to include the bridge too.

The picture is tilted quite a bit. If you look at the buildings on the right-hand side, they are clearly not parallel with the vertical edge of the photo.

 

The star-like moon is a result of using a small aperture combined with a long exposure. For some reason unknown to me, point light sources get this effect under those conditions. Even though the moon is a very large object, its distance from earth makes it effectively a point light source.

 

If you want to get rid of this, and have a normal moon, the easiest way to do so would be a double exposure. Retake the same shot on a moonless night (or when the moon is in another part of the sky), and then make a second exposure of the moon alone.

 

Another way to minimize this (probably won't completely get rid of it) is to use a larger aperture, and hence, a shorter shutter speed. You don't have to be all that concerned about depth of field, since everything is effectively at infinity. Be aware that lens sharpness wide open is not as good as stopped down a bit. For your lens, f/4 or f/5.6 would probably give satisfactory results.