The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’ve been trying for years to capture the moonrise from this viewpoint over Ahwahne (Yosemite Valley) in the vicinity of Too-tok-a-noo-la (El Capitan, left) and Tis-sa-ack (Half Dome, center). But without a real topo map in Photo Pills, I haven’t been able to ensure that the moon will be visible.
On this particular attempt, October 28, 2023, the light on the cliffs was gorgeous just before sunset at 6:04pm. But the Moon didn’t start to peek out behind Too-tok-a-noo-la until 6:38, 7 minutes after entering nautical twilight. Out of frustration, when I got home I composited the 6:04 cliffs with the 6:38 moon.
Technical Details
Both shots: Sony a7, Tamron E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 lens at 200mm, f/10
Hi Dan, I don’t think it is cheating at all. Same night, same place, and same photographer. Its a pleasing image with the red glow on the mountains.
There seems, to my eye anyway, a little haloing around the rocks and sky. In PS you can use the clone tool in darken blend mode to easily eliminate this plus the sky seems to have a bit of noise. Cheers
Dan, I have been playing games with the moon at that spot more than once. I never composited a shot, however. What I object to is that giant moon that is placed wherever the photographer wants it to be. Had the detail in the cliffs disappeared entirely at that point, so you couldn’t expose for the cliffs and then take another shot so the moon wasn’t blown out?
Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately I don’t have Photoshop, and On1’s version seems to require a full copy of the cliff layer. I’ll keep it in mind for future images, though!
I thought of that, and it was about 8 stops (1/5 of a second exposure, all other settings the same) to get the cliffs just visible. They don’t look terrible, though a bit bland (and rather noisy due to the high ISO). But the moon’s umbra was so bright that the composite was this monstrosity.
