Moon and Clouds

--Lannie

It is has some grain to it. However, sometimes grain will make the photograph. The moon is nice could be a tad bit sharper focus but the whole photograph looks good!

I always have my digital set to 80 ISO and make adjustments as I go, using a tripod and the 2 second timer can help you shoot this a little sharper.

Good all round photograph of the Moon and I like the clouds in there!

Landrum,

 Your sharpness went away due to using F/16.

If you got a good lens like the Sigma, use it wide open.

You would have little noise at lower ISO, like 400 or less .This is another reason to use F/2.8 (F/4 with the 1.4X).

I have only been imaging the moon for 55 years now.

Regards,  Mike

I think the finer points of the technicalities have been well addessed by Duane and Mike. So I shall keep my content to the pure aesthetics. Two main elements Colour and Composition, quite simply I really like both,.

Best Regards

Alf

Thanks, guys,  No, Mike, diffraction effects at f/16 would not be so great as to cause THIS much blurring.  I had just jumped out of fhe car and was trying to capture the cloud before it drifted down and off the moon.

Then and only then  (i.e., after the shot) did I have time to set the 2-second timer and reset the ISO.  So. . .  the fuzziness here has a more prosaic origin than diffraction effects at high f-stops.  The high ISO just happened to be the setting that was on the camera when I snapped this one.  It is not a setting that I recommend when shooting at night, especially on long exposures.  The real problem here was no remote shutter or 2-second timer when the shot was made.  The tripod was thus shaky on this one.

As for aperture, I would use f/16 at times throughout the evening as I tried to get the moon and some foreground trees in focus simultaneously.  Otherwise, I would shoot at the lens' sweet spot, probably between f/5.6 and f/8--it is definitely not at its best at f/2.8, Mike., nor even at f/4  (This is, after all, a Sigma, not a Leica or Zeiss lens--and even on those brands the sweet spot is often at a somewhat stopped-down value.)

This was shot the night before full moon.  Tonight is the full moon,  but, alas, it is completely overcast.  Glad I got out last night, technical errors and all.

The best shots are of the crescent or half moon, in my opinion, when more contrast makes the craters more visible.  Yet, yet, the full moon has its charms--and its challenges.

--Lannie

In this No Words thread, there is one by Judy Hamilton which I have previously seen and which (some time ago) inspired me to want to capture both the full moon and the earth in the same exposure:

http://photo.net/no-words-forum/00Ytn9

Judy on her own external site also has a page which is loaded with similar shots, looking down the same avenue in San Diego near sunset:

http://heyjude.smugmug.com/San-Diego/I-See-the-Moon-on-Pacific/6250686_Uofdx

So, she has set the bar pretty high, I think, for anyone who wants to do better at getting both the moon and the earth in the same exposure--preferably without blowing out the moon or darkening the earth, which is definitely a greater challenge that it at first appears.

Judy has also done something else in that off-site series that I believe is worth doing: taking a number of shots from the same location under differing lighting conditions.  I can see the value of that, even if the moon is not involved and even if the season and time of day vary--and even under varying weather conditions.

--Lannie