The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
With trees to the west (and even taller ones east) I rarely get a first-day crescent. It wasn’t dark enough to see this one until just before it disappeared in the trees. And I’m shooting over about 25 miles of land that got pretty warm yesterday so the air wasn’t still.
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
A focus stack – the trees are maybe 100 yards away and no way to focus on both. No LR adjustments, stack in PS and mask the OOF moon. Minor tweak to sky color as it recorded with daylight WB as just slightly toward cyan.
Hi Diane,
Sometimes less is more and that is certainly the case here. That crescent moon reminds me of the Cheshire Cat 's smile in Alice In Wonderland. I also like the moon’s location just above the treeline. No suggestions from me as the processing looks very natural for that time of day.
Great work! The sharpness of the moon and trees is great and the composite worked perfectly. I am always impressed by how much resolution the modern digital cameras have in resolving that thin crescent. Did you have to correct for any chromatic abbertions?
Thanks, @Ed_Lowe and @Youssef_Ismail ! This is just simple observation that is humbled by your ability to make it art! I keep hoping for at least some color gradient to justify a wider angle, but there was none. (There was some vague gold well to the SW…)
No CA (except perhaps the slight correction that is checked when I import to LR. If it had been a lot darker there might have been some with the higher contrast.. I’ll try again tonight to see what happens when (if) I track it. I’ll try to do a regular capture as well, but I doubt I would have any. With stars, though, it’s a different story, with the regular camera. Even the telescope has a little (at a much narrower FOV) but it is corrected in the processing.
Thanks, @Igor_Doncov – that is a real compliment! But at least this proves I tried! And tonight the moon was higher in a darker sky and I wanted to try to shoot it with the astro rig, but the little computer controller that runs it with an iPad interface was pouting because it was overheated and wouldn’t go to the moon. And the mosquitos were out in force so I gave up. And as I type this, back indoors, there is a mosquito buzzing around my head.
So so I! Is there an accessory for astrophotography that puts out some sort of insect-repelling signal? After the mosquitos have retired for the evening, my red headlamp attracts moths – in droves.
What a lovely cradle and sliver of moon Diane. My only thought, which granted is typically incorrect, is to play with a 4x5 crop that makes the moon a little larger (cropping back into the tree on the right and a bit off the top and bottom?)?
Thanks, @John_Williams! I was remiss in framing because I was about to lose the moon and now I see I didn’t leave room for the virtual earthshine (which was swamped by the ambient light but was just barely visible the next night. I was busy with tracker issues due to the heat and just too crabby to set up the real camera again.
I’ll do a RP with more canvas on top and see if that works better. Stand by…
I like the repost with more room for the earthshine portion. I noticed it as well in my photo, which for such a thin moon and when I photographed it at that time it is rare to have as much earth shine we it did. Perhaps the incredibly clear skies we had on Thursday was in part the reason.
Thanks, @Youssef_Ismail ! Yes, I think the clear air helped, and for you, so close to the coast, it must be even better than shooting at such a low angle over radiated heat and air pollution. And I definitely need to find a more lovely tree.
