Marvelous Night for a "Moon"-dance

[GTAltman]

Figured I'd try and be a tad witty.

I'm open to criticism and everything is on the table. I have thick skin.

While beating me up over the rest, try to also include a critque on cropping.

I'm a "look and feel" type of guy and generally can eyeball and see what I think looks good. :-\ However, there's something about either the crop or the composition I'm not feeling with this photo.





For a little background on PP, I cropped in RAW as well as adjusted the white balance (temperature). A little recovery, fill light, positive clarity. Believe it or not, vibrance and saturation were not touched.

In Photoshop, a few more slight adjustments. Curves were brought down and a second High Pass layer featuring the moon was added.

Shot in RAW, the EXIF is as follows:
Canon T1i
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 290 mm
ISO Speed 200

Thanks for the view(s), thoughts and comments in advance.

Gary

[silverbirch]

I'm no expert - I just know when I like something. I like this image, however, like you it doesn't feel quite right to me. I copied it and tried cropping a couple of different ways: firstly by having the moon just sitting at the tips of the tree and in the left third: secondly by a square crop, which was less pleasing to me. Hope this makes sense! Thanks for sharing.

[GTAltman]

Originally Posted by silverbirch

I'm no expert - I just know when I like something. I like this image, however, like you it doesn't feel quite right to me. I copied it and tried cropping a couple of different ways: firstly by having the moon just sitting at the tips of the tree and in the left third: secondly by a square crop, which was less pleasing to me. Hope this makes sense! Thanks for sharing.

Okay...it's not JUST me. :-)

I think what I like the most is the palm "fingers". The moon is obviously the subject. I guess without a cloud or something else, it'll just have to be what it is.

Thanks for responding!!

Gary

[RLucas]

I took it in to GIMP. Cropped some off of the left and off the to, which got the moon in to the upper left third intersection.
Created a duplicate layer and changed the blend mode to hard light. Reduced the opacity to taste. It made a big difference. Give it a shot.
The big issue is that the palm fronds are competing for the subject. Mainly because they are too light. The hard light blend mode darkens them down enough that they aren't as distracting.
Hope this helps!

[GTAltman]

Originally Posted by RLucas

I took it in to GIMP. Cropped some off of the left and off the to, which got the moon in to the upper left third intersection.
Created a duplicate layer and changed the blend mode to hard light. Reduced the opacity to taste. It made a big difference. Give it a shot.
The big issue is that the palm fronds are competing for the subject. Mainly because they are too light. The hard light blend mode darkens them down enough that they aren't as distracting.
Hope this helps!

Luke,

Thanks for the thoughts. I think you're absolutely right with the palm distracting from the moon.

I did just as you said, and this is the results I go from it....

Thanks for the input and direction Luke. Greatly appreciated!!!!

Gary