Harvest moon tonight...

nerfherder · Oct 6, 2006

So I took this photo from my bedroom window:

I took it at 7:10 BST (GMT+1), so those of you on the East coast of the US should get the same conditions in about an hour's time.

Cheers,
Liam

BOZ · Oct 7, 2006

hey, neil young!

Tinker Gnome · Oct 7, 2006

Heh, when I saw the moon tonight it could pass for Solinari from Dragonlance.

That is it did not look at all like a Harvest Moon(awesome game btw).

Angel Tarragon · Oct 7, 2006

Okay, the big question: what is the make (brand) and model of your camera? My parents paid good money for a digital camera, but the picture never turn out that great.

nerfherder · Oct 7, 2006

Frukathka said:
Okay, the big question: what is the make (brand) and model of your camera? My parents paid good money for a digital camera, but the picture never turn out that great.

Nikon D50 dSLR with Sigma APO 70-300mm DG lens on a cheap tripod. About $700 in total from amazon.

It's actually two exposures taken one after another, then merged in Photoshop CS2. Had to do it that way because the dynamic range of a digital camera can't capture the dimly lit clouds and the bright moon with the same exposure. The exposure for the clouds was 1/5 sec f/5.6, and the moon was 1/400 f/5.6 - about 6 stops difference.

I cropped it to about 1/4 of the frame, then resized to 800 pixels wide.

I'm not very happy with how I've merged the two pics in PS. I've only recently started using it and the learning curve is... steep! I've asked for advice on a photography forum I frequent. I'll then have another go at it.

Here's the first picture, exposed for the clouds:

and here's the second one, exposed for the moon:

Cheers,
Liam

Tiberius · Oct 7, 2006

Galeros said:
Heh, when I saw the moon tonight it could pass for Solinari from Dragonlance.

Heh. I'll occasionally see the moon when it's a waxing crescent, with the majority of it illuminated via earthshine. I've often thought "Wow, that (minus the sun-illuminated bit) must be what Nuitari looks like."

Angel Tarragon · Oct 8, 2006

I have to admit, Liam I am extremely jealous of your setup. I would gladly dump $700 for the camera, assuming it wouldn't take me 9 months to save it up (with which my current allowance that is exactly how long it would take). Then there is the price of Photoshop (gag).

nerfherder · Oct 8, 2006

Frukathka said:
I have to admit, Liam I am extremely jealous of your setup. I would gladly dump $700 for the camera, assuming it wouldn't take me 9 months to save it up (with which my current allowance that is exactly how long it would take). Then there is the price of Photoshop (gag).

Well, you can pick up some good prosumer cameras for less - e.g. Panasonic DMC-FZ50 ($559), Fujifilm FinePix S9000 ($500), Canon S2 IS ($250). Often you can pick up a bargain by getting last year's model - the latest version is often little different to the previous version, other than extra pixels, which don't necessarily equate to a better picture. My camera is only 6.1M pixel, for example. You don't get the same flexibility with a prosumer camera as with a dSLR, but you can get excellent pictures in good conditions for a lot less money.

I started with a 2MP point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot, and you can get a 5MP model for about $125 these days. That's plenty of pixels unless you intend to make huge prints or crop very tightly. 95% of a good picture is due to the photographer, not the camera.

You don't need PS - you can always get free image-processing software, like GIMP.

Cheers,
Liam

nerfherder · Oct 8, 2006

Here's another photo I took last night. This was taken later on, so there is less yellow from the atmosphere. Also, I didn't crop it.

Cheers,
Liam

WmRAllen67 · Oct 8, 2006

Very nice-- with your permission, that's now my desktop background...

BTW, this just passed full moon marked the Chinese "Moon Festival", which is a harvest festival/ day of remembrance holiday. People feel nostalgic for departed friends, eat "moon cakes" (sort of a Chinese version of fruitcake), and apparently drink a lot...

Along with New Year's it's one of the major holidays in the Chinese calendar, but not really celebrated outside of China for some reason.

(This has been your Cultural Fact for today, brought to you by "the class in Chinese history that I TA for..." We now return you to your regularly scheduled messageboard...)