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Archive 2015 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)

  
 
ben egbert
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


This is the shot planned a week ago. I was up this morning at 4:00AM, drove from my Moab Motel to Arches which is about 10 miles. Got here in plenty of time but as you see, the light angle is not great. I took an Expodisk shot (included) which gives me 4400 +9 in the main area. I used this to process the image, ran some NR sharpened and that it.

Then I went to Balanced rock which had better light angle and got the next one. I also did some with my 17TSE but when I got home they were OOF. Hard to focus a 17 even on the moon, its just too small. Bothe image processed the same.

I took some shots the morning before at Dead Horse point where I used the Expodisk and also the McBeth. Still need to process those.







Expodisk shot aimed at the moon.







Balanced rock



Edited on Mar 06, 2015 at 12:00 PM · View previous versions



Mar 05, 2015 at 05:01 PM
kylebarendrick
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


I like the first one, although the scale doesn't really come through. I actually like the light angle. Front lit night shots tend to look flat.

The expodisk result sounds about right. A full moon high in the sky should have a daylight light balance, 5000-5500. Your result is a little cooler which seems right for night.

The balanced rock shot has a little too much sky and too little foreground for my taste.



Mar 06, 2015 at 01:21 AM
Camperjim
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


I like the second image. I have great memories of being in that place. In addition the lighting is unique. The first seems a bit dark and plain.


Mar 06, 2015 at 09:21 AM
lighthound
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


Looks like you had some quality time behind your glass Ben! I was thinking about you while you were out there shooting and wishing I was lucky enough to be out there. I have got to get back out there someday and find these places.

I really like the comp on your first image and wonder if it would help any to try to pull out some of the shadow on the dark side.

Your second image is my pick of the two. At first I didn't like the snow cap mountains in the BG because they pulled my eye over there wondering what they were at first. After looking at it on a bigger screen I really like them back there as they add a sense of scale to the image.

I agree with kyle on the cropping though. Maybe less sky (even though it's very nice) but keep what FG you got. Maybe something like this rough hack? I used a 3:5 aspect ratio for reference.





Did you happen to shoot any long exposures that captured more stars that maybe you could blend with these properly exposed subjects? Now that I think about it though that might not have been possible due to the bright moon.



I think you have some great shots here Ben. A little fun time in post trying a few different things and you're gonna have some great images me thinks.



Mar 06, 2015 at 10:11 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


Thanks all for looking. I like the angle of the first one, pointing up, but he light was just not there. The second is my favorite and the even wider but OOF version would be my favorite. This is about the sky and stars as well as the foreground, so I wanted as much as I could get..

This is a very technical shot. Got to go wide, long exposure to get the stars, bit too long and you see movement. at 24mm 15 seconds is about max.

Anything above ISO640 starts getting too much noise, so I have limits there as well. F4 on these focal lengths will get the subject and stars in focus but the immediate foreground is soft and with this soft light, not much contrast either.

I think the technology is still 5-10 years away before this can be done without a tracking device. But I keep trying.

People like to go on moonless nights to get a dark sky and more stars. But they have to light paint which I don't like at all and refuse to do. Hence I use the moon for foreground and let the stars fend for themselves.

I did not process these because Bens processing is out of tune at FM. My own preference is to use the AWB which is warmer and add some saturation as well as my other processing tricks. Heck I will probably even do some HDR on the foreground.

These shots are fun. You can see your shadow, you can walk without a flashlight, you can actually see those rocks and they do appear red even in the cool moonlight. I love early morning. At age 12, I was delivering newspapers at 4:00 am and became a lifelong morning person.

Edited

I posted the wrong shot here, just another 24-70 shot. Here is the 17TSE I intended to post. Notice I used the AWB for this one. Really oof at 100%, downsizing for web covers a lot of sins.









Edited on Mar 06, 2015 at 12:02 PM · View previous versions



Mar 06, 2015 at 10:33 AM
Squirrely Eyed
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


The pipe organ shot doesn't work so well for me due to the lack of light and loss of scale. Maybe it it were a bit brighter overall the scale of the rock compared to the foreground would be more dramatic.

I really like the balanced rock shot. I like the composition how it is with all those extra stars. I'm a bit of a sucker for the natural gradients of the night and twilight sky. I also like the mountains in the background.



Mar 06, 2015 at 11:30 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · By the light of the moon (expodisk)


Thanks Squirrely Eyed. I also like the stars here, its part of the reason I go out. In fact I planned my trip by the phase of the moon. I did sunrise and sunset shots too and did some hiking, but the moon lit shots were the main purpose.

I have moonlit shots of most of the ICONs. Including Mesa Arch. But MA is not red so it does not come off as well.



Mar 06, 2015 at 12:05 PM





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