Moon Today .. B&W Conversion .. C&C Welcome

[FlyingPhotog]

A very early rising moon today here in south-central Arizona so I thought I'd play with it some and see if I could make it a little more stark.

The "Mist" accross the bottom is actually a high, thin cloud layer...

http://www.pbase.com/image/106862679/original.jpg

[Bernoulli]

Very nice! The stark effect works well.

There's one thing going on here that I always want to change in a picture like this, but I don't know what you do about it. Just today I was showing a picture taken at about the same time to a student in one of my classes. It's the final picture in my thread "Sunrise on Copernicus". She said it was "way cool" but she thought the left side of the moon was somehow "cut off". She explained that what she meant was that little jog in the terminator in the lower left, and you can see it clearly in your shot. I think people expect to see a smooth terminator that you would get from a perfect sphere, but the Moon isn't. When it's in this waxing gibbous phase the terminator does make that little turn coming off the southern highlands onto the plains of the Oceanus Procellarum. I've thought about how to "fix" it but it is what it is. But it was interesting that her eye was drawn to it. Of course, students are very complimentary about my pictures when I'm about to assign them a grade in a class!

Great shot Jay.

[FlyingPhotog]

Very nice! The stark effect works well.

As an admirer of your work, I thank you very much...

There's one thing going on here that I always want to change in a picture like this, but I don't know what you do about it. Just today I was showing a picture taken at about the same time to a student in one of my classes. It's the final picture in my thread "Sunrise on Copernicus". She said it was "way cool" but she thought the left side of the moon was somehow "cut off". She explained that what she meant was that little jog in the terminator in the lower left, and you can see it clearly in your shot. I think people expect to see a smooth terminator that you would get from a perfect sphere, but the Moon isn't. When it's in this waxing gibbous phase the terminator does make that little turn coming off the southern highlands onto the plains of the Oceanus Procellarum. I've thought about how to "fix" it but it is what it is. But it was interesting that her eye was drawn to it. Of course, students are very complimentary about my pictures when I'm about to assign them a grade in a class!

I noticed that as well and had the disc of the moon been apparently larger, I could probably have made that transition smoother. Rolling off the blues as I did to get a black sky also affected that area (I think...)

Great shot Jay.

Thanks very much!! :)

[bowtie`]

That cloud really adds alot of depth to this shot, Super capture! Is that the infamous 300? If it is that is one sharp lens. Nice detail. Not sure if it is my monitor but it looks like a like red CA on the western limb. Do not know it that is because you rolled off the blues or not.

[Bernoulli]

Nice detail. Not sure if it is my monitor but it looks like a like red CA on the western limb. Do not know it that is because you rolled off the blues or not.


No, it's totaly grayscale. I downloaded it and there's no color in it anywhere, although it comes down as an RGB.

FlyingPhotog - I think you're right on about rolling off the blues or otherwise darkening the sky. Anytime you do that or increase the contrast you pay for it at the terminator because it will become very sharp and move towards the light side. I try to minimize this by recovering as much as I can from the highlights first to at least try to level the brightness of the disk to the extent possible, then do the bare minimum darkening of the sky and contrast increase.

But we're nit-picking. This is an excellent image and one to show the friends and customers.

[FlyingPhotog]

That cloud really adds alot of depth to this shot, Super capture! Is that the infamous 300? If it is that is one sharp lens. Nice detail. Not sure if it is my monitor but it looks like a like red CA on the western limb. Do not know it that is because you rolled off the blues or not.

Yup 'tis the 300 + 1.4x TC. I was suprised at the detail as well when zoomed in since this was a very early moonrise without much contrast.

No, it's totaly grayscale. I downloaded it and there's no color in it anywhere, although it comes down as an RGB.

FlyingPhotog - I think you're right on about rolling off the blues or otherwise darkening the sky. Anytime you do that or increase the contrast you pay for it at the terminator because it will become very sharp and move towards the light side. I try to minimize this by recovering as much as I can from the highlights first to at least try to level the brightness of the disk to the extent possible, then do the bare minimum darkening of the sky and contrast increase.

But we're nit-picking. This is an excellent image and one to show the friends and customers.

Thanks again! :)