Is this photo really all that?

[JackDeth]

I live in Town of Menasha - a smaller town which is part of a small town called Neenah here in Wisconsin. There really isn't a whole lot around here to take pictures of. The other night the moon was so bright and clear and it was casting a beautiful glimmer off the water nearby. So around midnight I drove down the block from my house to a little park (Fritze Park) on Little Lake Butte des Mortes to see if I could capture a bit of the light off the water.

I must have taken over 100 pictures at different levels of exposure to get maybe 5 usable pictures. I couldn't use flash, the camera was on a tripod, but the wind was so high the whole kit was rocking back and forth or at least vibrating half the time. It was also really cold and my hands were growing numb. It was a real challenge.

I haven't posted anything on my Facebook in some time so I just dropped it out there on a whim. I honestly was not very impressed with this photo. I wanted to try and capture enough of the lights across the water and the glimmer on the water, but at the same time I wanted to capture the moon with clarity and detail (so you could see craters, etc), and just couldn't get it to work. If I could see craters the rest of the picture was almost black. If I could get the rest of the picture bright and clear and moon was bright with sunbursts. This picture did, however, generate an overwhelming number of comments from Facebook users. I even got one person who wants to buy a framed print for their wall!

I'm still sort of unhappy with the results. Maybe I'm just too picky or too inexperienced, but wanted to get your opinions or feedback on what I could have done differently. Based on some other feedback I've gotten, I just want to point out this is not an HDR photo. This is how it actually came out.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[PhotoPhix]

There is no detail either on the water horizon or the moon. The photo is not really balanced as the horizon splits the shot in 2.

Armando

[mitchcook]

I have to agree.
There is no detail, from anywhere I can see. As a print I don't think this would do well past 8 x 10, if that..

Try again on a less windy night, make sure you focus on something or have a middle-of-the-range aperture, find somewhere more exciting...

But then, I'm just an amateur too, not trying to order you around.

[Laurenbiz]

Hey there, I live in Janesville, WI! Trust me...the small towns may seem a little uninteresting, but you have photo opps all over! I'm sure Neenah has a walking trail, parks, botanical gardens, country roads, pine trees, train tracks, etc.!

I think your photo is lacking detail because the moon is so bright. The first time I tried taking a photo of the moon, I actually assumed that I'd need a long exposure with a tripod. Come to find out - to actually get any moon detail, you must have a fairly fast exposure. I was really surprised to find this out.

I'm attaching my moon photo here-
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XS
Lens: Canon 55-250is
Exposure: 1/320!!!
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO Speed: 200
Focal Length: 240mm
No flash

[IMG][/IMG]

I would suggest trying your full moon shot again with a faster exposure. This way, the moon isn't so bright. BUT - if you want to still get your detail on the other side of the water, then that will be a tricky exposure. Too fast (to get moon detail) will probably make that horizon black. So, either some sort of filter could or should be applied to your lens to darken the top of the frame (making the moon darker while still getting a longer exposure to capture the horizon,) or you could just do some brightening of the horizon in post processing.

I hope this helps! Moon shots are tricky, but keep trying!