By the Moon Light

[Toddyh]

Camping over the weekend next to a large dam and watched the sky slowly light up as the moon rose. Grabbed this one at about 10pm. Was too dark to focus on anything so I used a torch to focus on the rope swing. Thoughts and comments?

[seaslug]

Would never have guessed it was by moonlight, it's very well lit and your torch painting has worked well. Needs a little straightening to level the lake but well done!

What camera are you using. Appears to have pretty good low light performance.

[Toddyh]

Thanks Greg. I think it was a case of good timing more than amazing camera. I was watching the moon come up over the horizon and got this photo once the moon was up but the tree was 'shading' me from the full light.
Camera is a Samsung NX300M. It's a mirrorless not a DSLR.

[Alan]

Hi

Agree with Greg - the stars give it away. Swing should hang vertically

It helps in "Pick it to Pieces' if you provide as much info as possible - eg Camera/Lens and Exif Data

It is available, but it's just another thing to go looking for (Shutter Speed 30 second. F-Stop ƒ/3.5. ISO Speed Rating 1600) which seems a good choice.

Quite a beautiful photo, but it seems you weren't quite sure whether to feature the water or the sky so went for both? Had the sky been darker the stars might have been the 'stars', but as it is it's just a large area of blue. My opinion only - others may disagree

Possibly moving back a bit and to the right while turning more to the left would have bought more of the foreground grass into the photo and moved the tree branch further into the sky

But possibly, if it was so dark, this may have been difficult to judge. Good to pre-plan the shot before it gets dark

It also helps to try a few different compositions and exposures. Several exposures can be combined later for a more natural effect.

The torch light is interesting.

Great work and looks like a beautiful place to camp. How was the sunrise?

Cheers

[Toddyh]

Thanks Alan. To be honest I don't remember the exact settings. I know shutter speed was 30 secs. I think F-stop was around 2.5. I'm guessing iso was between 1600 and 3200. It was a Samsung NX300M with the standard 16-50mm lens.
I was positioned where I was because I really wanted to make the rope swing the focal point. Obviously it hangs from the tree. Also our camp fire was around 10m behind me and my car and swag around 5m to my right.

This is the shot from about 30 mins beforehand. Still waiting for the moon to come over the horizon and give me some light.



No real sunrise as the mountains on the east side of the lake obscured it until it became too harsh. This was the view from my swag just after the sun peaked over the mountains. Excuse the crooked photo. Obviously I was still sleepy.

[Alan]

Thanks for the other photo. Well done for taking it (it didn't quite line up but close enough for this exercise)

This is what I was suggesting as a way of making it more natural looking by combing two shots - just a quick and dirty edit of pasting one image over the other and erasing bits and pieces.

You camera settings weren't stripped and were available in EXIF view and are the ones I quoted in my first post - Shutter Speed 30 second. F-Stop ƒ/3.5. ISO Speed Rating 1600

What a great spot to go to sleep in

Cheers

[Toddyh]

Thanks Alan. I'm completely new to photo processing. I don't even know how you did that yet haha but I like it. I'm surprised it even lined up that close. It was frosty (around -5c) so I couldn't leave the camera set up on the tripod between photos.

[Toddyh]

I had another go at editing and came up with this

[Alan]

Looks more like a night photo to me now.

But it's your photo and you have to like it.

Thanks for having a go

[Toddyh]

Yeah I think I got carried away trying to bring out too many colours. Edited it to the point it did't look natural. Toned the editing way down for this one.

[LJG]

Great job to catch what looks like low mist hovering over the water on the far side of the dam.

[Toddyh]

Thanks that's exactly what it was. The mist of the water was even better in the morning but getting out of the swag into -5C was difficult and by the time I did the sun was too harsh for any decent photos.

[HansE]

Nearly a masterpiece. A little bit more care with the composition such as having the rope displayed and straight. This will fix the horizontal as well. Hope you get back for another go at it.

[Toddyh]

Thanks HansE. I'm definitely planning on getting back there. Such a magic spot.