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Super Moon over North Texas #6544164 11/15/16 08:09 AM
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Blue Moon Offline OP
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Full moon shots are generally more interesting combined with landscapes, cityscapes, waterscapes or landmarks to show perspective. Low clouds rolled in at the last minute obscuring the rising super moon at my location preventing the waterscape reflection shot I was set up for.

This lunar perigee image was captured using a Canon dSLR and 700mm of glass as song dogs howled and bass splashed. Really Right Stuff ball head and carbon fiber tripod provided a stable platform for the heavy setup.

Tight lines,

Blue Moon

Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6544177 11/15/16 11:35 AM
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Great pic!

Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6544318 11/15/16 01:57 PM
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Awesome picture!!! Puts mine to shame with my 300mm lens grin

Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: dlrz71] #6544363 11/15/16 02:26 PM
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Elkhunter49 Offline
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Originally Posted By: dlrz71
Awesome picture!!! Puts mine to shame with my 300mm lens grin


Me as well. I took some moon pics last night with my 300mm......... epic failure.
Your photo is going to cost me some cash.


Great photo, well done sir! up

Last edited by Elkhunter49; 11/15/16 02:27 PM.

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Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6544486 11/15/16 03:24 PM
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Great picture, love the detail up


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Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6544886 11/15/16 07:51 PM
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Great photo.

Just wondering what you did in post-processing. Looks like lots of contrast. Photoshop? Lightroom? Other?


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Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6545019 11/15/16 09:16 PM
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I see the flag.

Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Stub] #6545237 11/15/16 11:43 PM
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Originally Posted By: Stub
Great picture, love the detail up


Originally Posted by Sneaky
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Originally Posted by beaversnipe
Actually, BBC is pretty damn good

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Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Elkhunter49] #6548311 11/17/16 11:15 PM
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Originally Posted By: Elkhunter49
Originally Posted By: dlrz71
Awesome picture!!! Puts mine to shame with my 300mm lens grin


Me as well. I took some moon pics last night with my 300mm......... epic failure.
Your photo is going to cost me some cash...


Thanks for your comments they’re always appreciated. For those of you dreaming about expensive optics, I feel your pain. You can never have enough long, fast, sharp glass. Along the journey I’ve proven a scientific theory regarding optics acquisition. Blue Moon’s Law states, “Regardless of how much glass you have in your quiver, while you may have everything you need, you’re always at least $20K short of what you want…”

When it comes to a moon gun, the sobering reality is you only get a 1mm moon dot on your sensor for every 100mm of glass. That means when you’re shooting with 300mm glass, a 3mm moon dot lands on your sensor. That’s about 4 to 5 times less than you likely need for a high resolution shot depending on what sensor your dSLR has.

For perspective, full frame dSLR’s have a 36mm wide by 24mm tall sensor but most prosumer level dSLR’s have a smaller APC-S sensor, approximately 22mm wide x 15mm tall. For reference, my super moon shot was captured using 700mm and I still wasn’t close enough. I had to crop over 50 percent and then resize to fit the 800 pixel wide image post limitation.

I created the following graphic of moon dots on the typical APS-C sensor to visually grasp what we’re up against and just how much resolution we crop away when processing close-up moon images.



All glass decisions come down to a compromise if you have a limited budget and a wide range of subjects you want to capture. Best to prioritize needs vs wants to settle on the best glass for your quiver. Fortunately for me while my Canon 500 combined with a 1.4x shown below isn’t the perfect moon gun, it is the perfect duck gun. I highly recommend it. Besides, if you really want to shoot the moon it’s cheaper to get a telescope.

Regarding LandPirate’s question, I always shoot in RAW and mainly use Lightroom and Photoshop to process. Instead of attempting to recover lost details in post, I focus on not blowing out highlights while capturing the shot so I shoot in full manual mode and adjust shutter, aperture and ISO as needed to capture the shot.

The moon is actually a grey and dark globe but the vast majority of lunar images are over exposed in camera leaving moon shots bright white, flat and mostly featureless. The moon and white bird feathers are a challenge to capture without blowing out the highlights.

If I’m processing a close up of just the moon I personally want to see as much detail as possible. For wide landscape shots that feature the moon, lunar details don’t matter as much.

When I’m shooting a tight shot of just the moon, I strive to expose it so it resembles a grey and dark globe and only the brightest spots on the lunar surface such as Aristarchus show up as bright points of light. The details are highlighted by shadows and help show the curve of the globe instead of a flat white disc.

Besides shooting in manual mode, I take the time to critically focus on key lunar landmarks using LiveView to dial in crater detail. A rock solid shooting platform is necessary to focus and prevent camera shake. If you’re wondering how much magic happens in camera vs the digital dark room, see the LiveView image on my camera back.



Below is a shot from the 15th, a day after the super moon shot in the first post. The moon was still nearly full at 99 percent illumination and still under 222,000 miles away, a tad closer than it normally is at perigee. For a kindergarten refresher, every 27 days the moon makes and elliptical orbit around earth. It ranges between 225,000 miles when it’s close at perigee, to 252,000 miles away at apogee. When a full moon coincides during lunar perigee it's considered a Super Moon.



Blue Moon

Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6548361 11/17/16 11:51 PM
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Quote:
When a full moon coincides during lunar perigee it's considered a Super Moon.



And all this time I thought it was someone with a really big butt, flashing you.

Great pics and info.


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Re: Super Moon over North Texas [Re: Blue Moon] #6548445 11/18/16 01:00 AM
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Great info Blue Moon. Thanks.

I too, shoot RAW and in Manual. I post process in Lightroom. The few times I've shot the moon, I've used Live View. However, I always seem to over expose a tad. I shoot with a 6D and Tamron 150-600, along with a few other lenses.


Mike
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