Welcome The Newborn

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
,
1

TheNewborn_NPN.jpg
TheNewborn_NPN.jpg1000Ă—1500 605 KB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I have been chasing the moon for the last 30 years. It was the moon, or establishing proof that I was seeing the young new crescents, that got me behind a camera in the first place. I have gone out to find the first-day waxing crescents every month. I have quite the collection of first-day new crescent moons. Most of the time, it’s just the moon in the sky, sometimes with clouds as compositional aids, sometimes just a colorful sky, and sometimes it’s just a sliver of light in a dull sky. From time to time, the moon is close enough to the horizon that I can include that in the composition.

This moon is from just a few days ago, on June 18th. It is only 23 .5 hours past conjunction and only about 1% illuminated. It was one of the more challenging moons to find. If you are interested in tracking down the first-day crescents, then look up the Yallop Criteria. It was developed by an astronomer, B.D. Yallop, at HRM Roayl Observatory in England. There used to be a website where crescent moons were predicted and data gathered on sightings, tied to the observatory, but it seems to be down. I work with CrescentWatch.org to report crescent moons tied to the Islamic Lunar calendar. The moon in this photograph is the beginning of the 12th lunar month in that calendar. When Stephan Trainor came out with TPE (The Photographer’s Ephemeris) I noticed that the app tracked the moon . I asked Stephan if he would consider adding crescent moon data and sent him a white paper on the Yallop Criteria, and it’s now in that app.

Specific Feedback

I know it’s subtle but is that sliver of light enough to hold interest?

Technical Details

Nikon D850, Nikon 400mm f/5.6 MF lens, at f5.6 and 1/10 sec and ISO 100.

Simple processing, ACR, and PS.

4 Likes
2

Exquisitly delicate.

3

Hi Youssef, this is a sublime and beautiful image!

In regards to the feedback requested, I would say that the sliver of light is more than enough to hold interest as it fits perfectly within your composition without overpowering any of the other elements.
I like how my eye can follow the rich color gradient up the image before reaching the moon, as well as the textures of the forest at the bottom of the image with the trees pointing directly upwards in following with the gradient, once again leading the viewer to the moon.
This is a rich and captivating image which definitely holds a lot of interest. Great work!

4

Youssef, I am struck by the color in the sky and the minor challenge of finding that tiny crescent. I think this works very well because the moon doesn’t dominate. There is some extra brightness behind the trees along the horizon that a bit of burning-in using a lights luminosity mask would fix.

1 Like
5

Wow! I think this is wonderful and sublime! The gradient in the sky is fantastic. This is the thinnest crescent I’ve ever seen. I’ve also often (but not carefully enough) tried to find and photograph crescents, but I seem to have very bad luck with clear skies those nights. The big difficulty is that a crescent moon is low on the horizon by the time it’s dark enough to see, and seen through a thick layer of atmosphere.

6

Thank you for the editor’s pick. I was not expecting this.