Moon Peeking Out II

--Lannie

Never get in a pissing contest with a skunk.  I have sevened them both.  If my ratings were given their deserved weight, well, they might not matter at all.  but they might be important.  stranger things have happened.  the other one is more gracefully beautiful, but this one also deserves a seven.  best, j

Thank you so much, Jamie.  I just needed to get a little closer to that soft harvest moon.

--Lannie

But remind me never to shoot the 50D at ISO 1600 again.  I had the 5D II with me, but another lens was on it.  The chroma noise is what I get from being too lazy to put this lens on the better low-light camera. 

At just one more boost in contrast, the color started blotching so badly that I had to pull back to here on post-processing--and even here I am not thrilled with the level of chroma noise.  Oh, well. . . .

--Lannie

A very good shot, I like the mood and composition. It does look a little pushed, but so what. I'm here to look at images and never to peek at pixels. Also there are always times when we have the "wrong" lens with us, I may use primes but I always carry some sort of zoom as well - just in case :)

Thanks, Andrew.  Yes, I wanted a bigger image here than what I had.  Oh, well. . . .

--Lannie

You didn't need 1600 anyway!  An 800th of a second?  You must have been in a real hurry!!!

I'd put an EF-S lens on the 50D.  Even the plastic kit lens is quite good.  It has a much easier job because you aren't throwing away more than half of the image circle, as you do with EF lenses.  My personal favourite is the Sigma 30/1.4.  best, j

Jaime, I also did not need to be shooting with a 70-200 zoom set to 70.  I am surprised that I got anything at all.  There is not enough data here to print at any size.  The crop was that severe.

I was swapping between this rig and the 5D II with the Sigma 300 2.8 on it (which shots have yet, four months later, to be downloaded--lots to do here of a much more serious nature unrelated to photography).  The moon surprised me after I had been shooting cars on the highway while waiting for the clouds to clear or the moon to get high enough to be seen.  I swung around and squeezed off a few without thinking. . . .

This is therefore a salvage shot, nothing more. The moon was already so high that I already had a great sense of futility. I had wanted to shoot it when it first appeared, when it might have looked copper-colored.  I shot these out of a sense of resignation and went home.  Three months later I finally downloaded them.  (It was not an easy fall semester, to say the least.)

As for EF v. EF-S lenses, I don't own any EF-S lenses.  They have their place, but I have put all my money (which is not very much) into EF lenses, so that I can use them on both crop-sensor and full-frame cameras.

My other point remains: don't add much contrast when post-processing a 50D file!  That is especially the case when the noise level has been exacerbated beyond belief by shooting, as you correctly say, at far too high an ISO.  In such a case, adding contrast adds blotchy chroma noise in a hurry. (I was shooting at f/5.6, and the high shutter speed was driven by the high ISO, alright for shooting cars, not too good for shooting the sky at twilight.

Sloppy work. . . .  Glad I got something out of it that at least works for web posting.  I think that, if I shot more often, I would not make so many errors, but the fact is that I do not shoot very often.  I have the equipment to go pro, but not the skill set and not the habits that come with more experience.  I make a lot of silly mistakes.

Attached is the original, just so you can see how bad the mistakes were.  The other version is, of course, from the same file.

I don't do photography these days.  I do salvage.

--Lannie

Jamie, I am working on a major project right now of a completely different sort--I like to think of it as my own personal Operation Overlord.  It's a legal action against an entrenched bunch of felons.  I can't afford to make any mistakes on that one, and I have to get it right the first time.  I will tell you more when the time is right.  I hope that I do not have to launch it, but, since I see no indication of rationality (or admission of error) on the other side, I am proceeding with intense, very time-consuming preparations for a double-pronged, full-scale legal "counter-attack."  Can't afford to get thrown back into the sea. . . by my own personal Hitler.  He's a very bad boy, and he has powerful friends, but they have made lots of mistakes--sillier ones than mine on this photo.

Wish me well.  They have the money on their side.  I have the truth on mine.

--Lannie

Preparations sometimes take a long time, Jamie:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/NormandySupply_edit.jpg

--Lannie