Posted by Scott Bean on August 23, 2009 at 1:32 PM
This is a 3 shot HDR from last night of the moon rising above the Kansas River just outside of Manhattan. My wife and I were coming back from Chase County (where the waterfalls are just barely flowing) and I was going to just go on home and not attempt to photograph the moon rise. My wife insisted that I try and I'm glad I listened to her! (as is normally the case she was right...you'd think I'd learn to listen one of these days!).
Posted by Randy Wilson on August 23, 2009 at 3:39 PM
A pleasing and serene comosition with cheery colors. I like the nice, solid foundation you've got in the lower half of the image balanced off with a sky empty except for the moon.
There's just enough detail in the dark areas to keep them from going blocky, which without the HDR or something similar, or a grad ND, would have been impossible to achieve. It may be a little disconcerting that the reflections on the water are brighter than the sky. Shouldn't the opposite be the case, or is it an odd trick of light? At any rate, I would prefer the sky darker anyway, but that would be a matter of taste. I think It's ok that the horizon splits the image because it doesn't seem split down the middle because of how much visually is going on on the ground and how sparse the sky is visually. There seems to be a dust spot just above the horizon on the left. This might be verging on being hyper-critical, but I believe I would prefer it if the water wasn't broken up by the silhouettes of the brush. I'm glad you were able to get the near bank and brush silhouettes into the shot, though. By the way, this is a non-photographic point, but this would be the moon setting.
Posted by Scott Bean on August 23, 2009 at 7:12 PM
Thanks for the comments Randy! I have to do my best Homer Simpson "Doh" about the moonrise vs moonset. I'm so used to photographing the full moon rising in the evening I didn't even think about this being in the west and moonset.
Interesting about the water being brighter than the sky...there has been something bothering me about this and I think maybe that is it. I went back and looked at all the frames that make up the HDR and in each one the upper third of the sky (the bluish part) and water were about equal, which I guess makes sense, but in the HDR the sky turned out much darker. I'm going to have to play around with this and see how some variants come out.
Posted by Scott Bean on August 23, 2009 at 7:28 PM
Here is a slightly different version of this photo. I think Randy really hit the nail on the head for me with the water being brighter than the sky...I think that is what was bugging me about this photo. In this version I darkened the water a bit and for me at least I like this version much better.
Discussion
10 repliesThere's just enough detail in the dark areas to keep them from going blocky, which without the HDR or something similar, or a grad ND, would have been impossible to achieve. It may be a little disconcerting that the reflections on the water are brighter than the sky. Shouldn't the opposite be the case, or is it an odd trick of light? At any rate, I would prefer the sky darker anyway, but that would be a matter of taste. I think It's ok that the horizon splits the image because it doesn't seem split down the middle because of how much visually is going on on the ground and how sparse the sky is visually. There seems to be a dust spot just above the horizon on the left. This might be verging on being hyper-critical, but I believe I would prefer it if the water wasn't broken up by the silhouettes of the brush. I'm glad you were able to get the near bank and brush silhouettes into the shot, though. By the way, this is a non-photographic point, but this would be the moon setting.
Interesting about the water being brighter than the sky...there has been something bothering me about this and I think maybe that is it. I went back and looked at all the frames that make up the HDR and in each one the upper third of the sky (the bluish part) and water were about equal, which I guess makes sense, but in the HDR the sky turned out much darker. I'm going to have to play around with this and see how some variants come out.
The second version looks better from over here too.