This assignment is pretty basic really. Take a shot with the moon it in. This is not meant to be an equipment based challenge where where "mine's bigger than yours"... It's more meant to be a challenge where you prove you understand exposures.

The moon is very easy to shoot and very hard at the same time. For a few reasons. It's easy once you understand basic exposures and that the moon is lit by the sun. It's hard at the same time because the pea brain in you DSLR doesn't know what it's looking at, sees all that dark sky, and averages the scene to 18% gray blowing the moon out... This challenge is basically to force you to go outside and play with the manual mode on your camera to prove you understand what's going on. I've shot the moon a ton ever since I bought my first DSLR and my shots have improved significantly over the years. Not really because of the lenses I own, but more because of my understanding of my cameras and how to really sharpen shots for web display.

Guidelines (just to keep us all on track)

• Photo(s) must have a properly exposed moon in them. Creative relation to the theme is certainly allowed (and encouraged). Anything that is related in some way is legal.
• Assignment is open from September 19th until I close it (ongoing?).
• Only photos that have been shot within the assignment date range are allowed.
• No signup is required, participation is encouraged regardless of skill or equipment level (after all, its not the camera, it’s the photographer,)…we’re here to have fun.
• Photo size limit: 800px on the longest side
• Basically, photograph however you like and normally do…whatever photography is to you. As many (or few) bodies/lenses/formats/Post-processing as you’d like. Sticking to basic PP is encouraged, tho’.
• If you’d like, post brief but relevant photo information and note PP (if any) is done. Maintain EXIF data if possible.
• Keep comments on topic, constructive, and considerate.
• learn something, or prove you already know this concept!
• Have fun!

Some hints for those of you who have not done this before:

• the moon is lit by the sun.
• this means the "sunny 16" rule applies
  • sunny 16 = f16 with the shutter speed of 1/ISO
• sunny 16 is only a guideline, adjust from there until you get something that looks good
• chimp your histogram and be sure the spike in it IS NOT against the right side of the graph
• I shoot a shot at a rough guess, then zoom in to look at the moon in that shot. You're looking to make sure there are details in the shot
• You may need to manually focus your lens to get a sharp image.
• tripods are recommended, especially if you're using longer lenses
• IS is helpful if you're not using a tripod
• liveview helps if you have it (for focusing). If not, manually focus and bracket that (ie take a shot, adjust a frogs hair, take another)

here's the moon thread in sharing for examples:
http://www.newschoolofphotography.co...ead.php?t=4943

here's 2 samples with exif for a basic starting point:
http://www.benjacobsen.com/wp-conten...8/img_6686.jpg

• Exposure Time: 1/125
• Aperture: f/11.0
• ISO equiv: 200
• White Balance: Auto
• Exposure Mode: Manual

http://www.benjacobsen.com/wp-conten...8/img_0113.jpg

• Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
• Aperture: f/11.0
• ISO equiv: 200
• White Balance: Auto
• Exposure Mode: Manual

How about an ongoing thing?

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

This is not meant to be an equipment based challenge where where "mine's bigger than yours"...

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

Guidelines

• Assignment is open from September 19th until I close it (ongoing?).

Originally Posted by s7khan

How about an ongoing thing?

Originally Posted by tardypizza

well, you certainly CAN use a long lens and show off, I'm just saying if you've only got a kit lens or shorter focal lengths, I still want you to participate.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

If I spent time reading all of that I wouldn't have said that now would I?

The moon was looking crazy awesome last night.. maybe I'll head out tonight and shoot something if it isn't too cloudy

last nights moon was sweet here too!

Oh man. Now I got to try and do this all over again.......

Wait. Did I inspire this one Ben? Haha....

My neighborhood sucks for shooting hte moon, I tried tonight and the clouds were too bad once the moon rose above the trees in the nature preserve. Damn.

fyi, here's a site that'll tell you when to look (since I haven't seen it since I posted this):
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

Does anyone understand what they are saying on that site?

Code:

 MOON
        Moonset                    4:02 p.m. on preceding day
        Moonrise                   2:32 a.m.                 
        Moon transit               9:43 a.m.                 
        Moonset                    4:46 p.m.                 
        Moonrise                   3:39 a.m. on following day

How is the moon rise at 2am? what is the transit? the mood definately has not set at 4:46pm

Transit is when a celestial body crosses the meridian, generally it's when the moon will be highest in the sky.

What's wrong with the moon rising at 2am and setting at 4:46pm? Did you choose your location correctly? Here, today's moonrise should be around 2:30am

yeah, french, let me break it down for you:

Code:

        Moonset                    4:02 p.m. last night/afternoon
        Moonrise                   2:32 a.m. this morning                
        Moon transit               9:43 a.m. highest in the sky, later this morning               
        Moonset                    4:46 p.m. tonight/this afternoon           
        Moonrise                   3:39 a.m. on following day tomorrow morning.

so the moon came up at 2:32am this morning, it was highest at 9:43am this morning, and it will set at 4:46pm tonight wherever that list is for. They include the previous day and next day because if you're looking a week down the road, those times might be what you were looking for so it saves you searching the previous and next days.

well all I know is that the moon is out after 4:46 pm. The sunset is at 7:31 pm. How does the moon go down before the sun?

The moon has nothing to do with the sun. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon

I know, but according to the site, no moon would be up tongiht. I'm determined to get a shot now...

right, the moon's cycle is much different than the sun's. This is also why it's phases change, because of it's relation to us and the sun...

seriously, go watch some animations on it if it's still not clicking.

well, I didn't see the moon tonight. until I was up at 3:30am, it was low in the horizon. that's just weird to me.

french, watch both of these:
http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent...moonphase.html
http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent.../sidereal.html

then realize the earth spins once a day to make days right? So it's our rotation around the polls that makes the moon rise/set, but it's the moon's "monthly" rotation around us that makes the phases change and the set and rise times change. That's animations should help, just realize they didn't spin the globe like it does IRL.

Originally Posted by PhatheadWRX

well, I didn't see the moon tonight. until I was up at 3:30am, it was low in the horizon. that's just weird to me.

Didn't see it hear either. I do think it is funny that it just disappeared right after this assignment came out.....

Hey Ben - Timing is everything huh?

yeah, I know right.......

but that's why this ends on "???"...
I'm giving it at least a full cycle so everyone has access to a full moon at normal times. Then if the weather sucks somewhere we can go even longer. But I'm also thinking this will be ongoing like doors anyway.

ugh, FINALLY....



the moon at slightly less that 100%:

very nice ben! any thoughts on this?

wow, it's amazing how much it waxes in a night eh?

I'd say it might be a tad over exposed? The right edge looks to have no details for more than it should. But I'm thinking you did that in post with a tad too much contrast...

yeah I may have killed the highlights trying to get better definition in the craters.

Ben, here is the same shot with a little less contrast. This is also close to a 100% crop.

This one is not so good........

Gonna have to try again I guess.

I took a couple...



D300 | ISO200 | 200mm | f8 | 1/20" | Circular Polarizer



D300 | ISO200 | 1200mm | f5.9 | 1/40"| 25mm eyepiece

Slight cropping on the first, none on the second. I actually couldn't fit the whole thing in the frame. If it was later, it might have been sharper, but I could still see the heat distorting the air like a mirage. I decided to try a polarizer, since it is reflected light after all.

Originally Posted by LateApex

I could still see the heat distorting the air like a mirage.

yeah, I was seeing that as well (liveview with 420mm of lens).

what's your 1200mm setup? Telescope I assume? And why is it backwards?

Here's my setup:

http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~product_id=08943

I just added a camera adapter.

It's backwards because it's a reflector type telescope. Everything is flipped. For astronomy, which way is right side up in the universe? I actually only noticed it when I posted the two photos side by side. I should have fixed it. The second one seems a bit underexposed to me as well.

Lets try this one.....

Two I tried from last night:

Tonight's full moon from the north east......

#1


#2

Crap. I meant to try to get last night's full moon.

How does the original look? The second one I posted is a crop and I have not had that kind of issue with cropping them. To me it looks OOF. What were your settings for this shot?

Huh, that is strange. If you were resizing when you cropped I might say maybe that would effect it but it just seems to be OOF. I shot mine with a 55-200mm Tamron on a 1.5 crop body (300D) so I would be you could get a decent shot with you 70-210mm.

Where are all the guru's to comment on this????

yeah, it does look soft to me. But OOF soft, not lens issue soft. Were you on a tripod? w/o live view manually focusing on the moon is a BITCH and a half, I know. But use a tripod and focus bracket if you can. IE go to infinity, take a shot, and step it in slightly and reshoot. Check your images zoomed in if you can to see if they're sharp.

This morning there was a killer moon out. I know these are a bit over exposed, mainly because I tried to use similar settings to the crescent moon I shot on 10/5.

I love the blue background from it being light outside


too cool that I got the plane/rocket

full (or close to) tonight

tonight's moon. used Ben's guidelines and was able to get this handheld. i cropped it down a bit, it was taken at 300mm



another one i took that is a 100% crop

^ Both of those look great! I was trying to shoot the moon with the Durham skyline, but it kept hiding behind the clouds...