When you see a nice detailed shot of the full moon with trees...

[kristenh]

Does that have to be an HDR picture? i have experimented and experimented and it just seems that the moon is so bright and needs a very fast shutter speed, but the trees in the dark need a long exposure that it is just beyond my camera's dynamic range to get them both in the same shot. am i right about that?

[zona5101]

besides hdr there are other post processing techniques you could use... but essentially there is a limitation to how much dynamic range your camera can capture and then we need to rely on post processing to bring it together. This existed with film as well and there were(are) darkroom techniques to reign in the range.

[BexJarratt]

I've not tried it, but I wonder whether a graduated filter might help to reign in the bright moon but give you shutter time to pull some detail out of the foreground.

[kristenh]

thanks for your replies, guys. as i feared- i don't have any pping abilities at all (well, i can crop)- but i tried probably 50 different settings last night and i believe you are correct. i will put the graduated NDF on my birthday present list, though. luckily, there's another full moon every month!

[BexJarratt]

Another thought I just had; have you thought about shooting a waxing/waning gibbous moon, rather than full? It might give you more detail and contrast to the moon itself, and a bit less reflected light, reducing the dynamic range between the moon and trees a bit.

[milosh]

Or you could try shooting while the Moon is partially covered by clouds, that would decrease its brightness.

[OsmosisStudios]

Composites. In many cases the moon is an entirely separate shot added in post.

[Jonbar18]

I would assume so. I've only seen shots like that with silhouette's so I would assume the range is far too wide

[ElCapitan]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Composites. In many cases the moon is an entirely separate shot added in post.

This. The moon is surprisingly bright, so you would either have to have 2 exposures, or you could get a nice close up of the moon and add it into the shot. You could then mess around with layers and get the moon behind the trees.