City - Oak Island State - NORTH CAROLINA Country - United States
About
I'd hoped for the moon closer to the horizon and waited until 4AM. As the moon approached my desired position clouds rolled in from sea. Luckily I'd shot this one earlier in the night.
Hi Roger . . . by "Trick the camera" what I mean is the camera is working to bring the black into correct exposure and I think even spot metering may not solve the overexposure of the moon issue. I generally switch to 100% manual and underexpose in RAW format (you can adjust up to two f/stops during conversion). Using the same RAW file, save a copy overexposing the moon to get the details from the other elements and then composite, yes. I hope this helps, but I have always favored seeing details on the moon . . . not seeing a moon as bright as a solar disk since that feels a tad unreal. Since it's digital you can freely (and cheaply) experiment. Also, the Nikon you're using supports bracketing. Check your manual and you can bracket the exposure setting so that each shot also includes one more and one less exposed.
Hi Roger . . . by "Trick the camera" what I mean is the camera is working to bring the black into correct exposure and I think even spot metering may not solve the overexposure of the moon issue. I generally switch to 100% manual and underexpose in RAW format (you can adjust up to two f/stops during conversion). Using the same RAW file, save a copy overexposing the moon to get the details from the other elements and then composite, yes. I hope this helps, but I have always favored seeing details on the moon . . . not seeing a moon as bright as a solar disk since that feels a tad unreal. Since it's digital you can freely (and cheaply) experiment. Also, the Nikon you're using supports bracketing. Check your manual and you can bracket the exposure setting so that each shot also includes one more and one less exposed.
Thanks for the advice. By "trick the camera" do you mean doing something like spot metering to get the moon's correct exposure and then another shot letting the camera expose for the dark sky, and then compositing the two?
This is a decent shot and nice sky but the moon is overexposed, losing all details. To get the details, you have to trick your camera. On any auto setting on the Nikon, and on Aperture or Shutter Priority, the camera adjusts and reads all that dark sky . . . overexposing the image. You need to manually set the camera to underexpose (use of RAW is preferred) and set exposure when you convert from RAW. You can then eliminate the white disk and replace it with a properly exposed moon, combining it in a PS edit with a perfectly exposed sky.
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{K:101119} 5/16/2006