I seem to have abysmal luck when it comes to weather and astronomical events. On December 1 last year, there was a once-in-a-lifetime conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus — I couldn’t get a picture of it, because the sky was completely overcast for me. Later in December, the full moon was closer (and accordingly larger) than it had been for 15 years — again, solid cloud layer where I was.
So I really had my hopes up for this month, with a full moon nearly as large as in December. This time, at least, weather in my vicinity was “just” hazy (vs. overcast):
Since the haze kept me from getting a clear shot of the moon, I opted for the old adage that if life gives you lemons you should make lemonade. I tried to take advantage of the haze by making an HDR, by hand. So I took a short exposure of the moon itself, and combined it with a longer exposure of the haze layer.
If you’re curious, here are the “source” images, both taken hand-held with a 200mm lens:
The moon is crisp enough that this composite came out looking a bit surreal, but I like it. What do you think?
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January 13th, 2009 at 10:11
Wow you did a great job combining those two images. Very nice shot!
January 15th, 2009 at 14:27
That haze is beautiful! And you took this hand-held?? I’m impressed!
January 18th, 2009 at 08:24
Thanks, Andy!
Thanks, Arjan — but with the moon, it’s actually pretty easy! The moon’s just as well lit as the Earth, so a moon shot will take about the same exposure as a daylight shot outdoors (here, 1/320 sec.). Even the haze isn’t too tough (in this case, 1/60 sec). The tricky part is doing the masking right when you’re combining the shots – at least, for me, it’s still a bit tricky…
January 22nd, 2010 at 17:24
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