Need help post processing

[Athas_orm]

Hi I have a photograph which I think came out great composition wise. Theres detail that I can see in the RAW file (when I turn down the brightness) however I can't seem to get that same detail up in a natural way. I've tried histogram adjustsments etc.

Can I post the photo and see if anyone has any suggestions?

Is this the right place for it?

Regards,

Wes

[Nicole]

Yep, this is the right place for it, and yep, go ahead and post the photo. Best if you can find somewhere to host the actual RAW photo if you'd like some advice on how to edit that rather than a jpg version.

[Athas_orm]

Okay the original file can be found here

http://www.wesley-acheson.com/IMG_0282.CR2

I've put up my attempt at post production



There seems to be a lot more detail on the moon face that I can bring up. I've also got a few other versions that came out okay. (Considering I was fully zoomed in with a 300 mm lens by hand and I don't really know how to use the camera)

I just like this one the best I think the bird came is more interesting in the halo rather than the moon face. A friend suggested altering the brightness three times on this photo then doing a hdr merge.

Finally is there any way I can lessen the noise.

[Nicole]

I'm not sure what program you're using, but one option is to use Lightroom (a trial or the LR3 beta if you don't have it). What I tried doing was using the adjustment brush and just going over the moon itself (not the halo or anything else). Then I adjusted the exposure, the contrast, the structure, the vibrance, and the clarity. Which brought out a decent amount of detail in the moon, but it also might look a little not quite right. Then I just did another brush around the moon's halo and increased the exposure slightly to make the bird a little more obvious than it had become. And last of all, I ran it through Nik Dfine 2.0 (to reduce the noise) and cropped it.

[Athas_orm]

Oh I'm using paint shop pro x2. I'm going to see if I can copy your result before anything else. However as I see it the problem with lightening the halo and darkening the moon is that it doesn't fit quite right.

After I feel confident copying I'll try to bring out a bit more of the silhouette also. Is that the actual size. I get a screen saying I don't have permission to view the photograph.

One last edit. I suppose this means I need commercial software to just reduce noise?

[Nicole]

Oh, I put it as private because I didn't want it in my photostream Ummm, let's see... You can get the original here.

That's always the problem with moon halos it seems, you can either get the halo looking right or the moon looking right and getting the perfect balance between them is pretty difficult. I've tried a few times on my own pictures and just figured that it's one of those things that I can see but not photograph.

And there are free noise reduction programs out there, I'm just not sure which ones work on PSPX2, but Windrider86 might, I'm pretty certain she still uses PSP. Try dropping her a message and see if she knows of anything.

[Athas_orm]

Wow seeing larger thats really a great job on the moon itself. I don't really know if its worth saving the photo or I should abandon project but its been cloudy since then and even when the moon does rise again I don't know if it will be behind the tower. Would have loved If I had my tripod at that point I would have taken a slower exposure.