How to get a proper shot of the moon!

The moon is a very interesting and hard subject to get a proper picture of because it is a very bright object and being far away that you need a 600mm+ lens to get really close!

Also being so bright you need to know how to expose correcly otherwise you dont get the details of the craters to show on the picture!

There is several ways of getting a well exposed moon shot:

- Using ND filters to stop down the moons intense light, the downside is that the moon has a habit of being a moving target which can affect your ability to get a sharp photo when using a lower shutterspeed!

- Set you cameras exposure compensation between -2 to -5 (if you camera support more then 2 steps).

- Set your camera to manual mode and find a shutterspeed that works using trial and error (I find around 1/100 to 1/200 works great with f 4.0 and iso 200).

Here is how i created this photo:

Here is the two photos i used in order to capture both the detail of the moon and the clouds:

photo no. 1

Properly exposed photo that shows the craters clearly.

photo no 2

Notice how bright the moon is when it shows up as a blob of light as default!

1. I edited the raw files using Adobe camera raw and then loaded them in photoshop cs5.

2. I then dragged the photo with the details of the moon in the photo with the details of the sky.

3. Using layers i set the opacity of the detailed moon shot to 40% so that i could align both photos and then adjusted the settings i needed to in order to get the effect i was looking for.

4. I then saved the final images as a psd and loaded the file in Lightroom and did some additional editing.

5. The final result!

The end result is great and well worth the effort!

One last thing!

There is another way of getting really close up shots of the moon:

- Mount your camera on a telescope.

Unfortunately i dont own a telescope myself to try out but if you follow

Leonardo Moran Cahusac on Facebook ha can tell you more about his experiences:

http://www.facebook.com/leonardo.morancahusac

Do you love your own photos?

I received a email where i was asked whats my secret for getting so many comments on Flickr?

My answer was very simple: "Love your own photos, look at other people photos and most importantly know the basics of how shutterspeed, aperture and iso works!"

He emailed me back saying: "Thanks for the advice but how is that going to make me more popular on Flickr?"

I responded back: "If you love your own photos then it doesn't matter if you get allot of comments on Flickr because at the end of the day there is only one person who knows if your photos are great and that is you!"

I did add that there are positive aspects of being popular on Flickr but that is a secondary goal!

He responded back by saying: "What is wrong with you assholes that cant even give me a straight answer!"

I didn't hear from him again so hopefully he understood what i was talking about.

...........................................

I do admit that i was an asshole by not explaining that if you comment on other peoples photos then you get comments back, but to be honest i have grown tired of the constant race of getting allot of comments and faves on Flickr because at the end of the day it doesn't matter to me as much as it used too!

What matters is how i feel about my photos, how being creative helps me to be feel more confident of myself so that i can be successful with my life.

As for all of you who visit, comment and press the favorite button on my photos, i thank everyone of you very much for your support by being there for me :)

Do you love your own photos?

How do you value a comment or a favorite?

Guest blogging for Gotsaga

I was asked to do a guest blogpost for Gotsaga about 5 places to visit in Gothenburg, so i accepted the challenge and created this post:

http://www.gotsaga.com/detailsaga/top-5-best-places-and-things-to-do-in-gothenburg-sweden/4416

Gotsaga is a great resource for discovering new places to visit when traveling or if you want to rediscover your own city!

Links to visit: http://www.gotsaga.com/ http://twitter.com/GotSaga, http://twitter.com/PatriciaVance

Thanks again to Gotsaga for the guest post opportunity :)

A better way of finding your next lens.

I was thinking about when i should get a new lens and it struck med that there is a way that works great, is cheaper then getting it at the store and allows you to try it out before making a decision, namely look around your network of photographer friends and see of one of them have a lens that they want to sell.

This method not only works great, it also helps your photographer friend to find a quick buyer which enables them to try a new lens at the same time!

Depending on the level of friendship you can get a great price and at the same time help out the economy of your friend.

This is by the way the method i have been using to get to my current lens setup and i love how i was able to make my friend happy by helping him/her out with some need cash for excellent glass :)

So the next time you want a lens ask around and you will find that your friends may have the one you want :)

How do you find your lenses?

Do you get them new or used?

lenses, finding, trading, price, friends, network, glass, optics, wanting

Year in review time!

We are almost starting the year of our lord 2011 and before that happens i would like you to do a year in review of the photographic art you created during 2010.

It is a important step into becoming a better photographer by learning from your photos and memories of what happened during those times you were shooting.

You may ask though: Why would i want do a review of the past??

The answer is to learn from your experiences and to remember the mistakes that did or may have ruined a great photo from being created!

So i would suggest to you to look at your photos from 2010 and pick 30 that made an impact on you. This could be by feeling, by the technical difficulty or by what the experience of taking that photo was.

Then make a list of thing you did right and a list of thing you failed at and use those things as a way of learning. Then finally write a list of things or places you want to visit so that you don´t miss that special seasonal moment again!

Most importantly do the year in review throughly so that it you really learn and become a even better photographer!

Have a happy holiday and a happy new year :)

Expose for the snow!

The other day when i went and shot a roll of tri-x 400 film and today i developed the roll and found out that i didn't expose for the snow!

So why is exposing for the snow important?

The lightmeter on a camera tries really hard to give you a good exposure but snow plays a nasty trick by being really bright which results in pictures where the snow is grey instead of being white.

In my case my Canon A-1 is from the late 1970:s and it has only one light metering mode (center weight), as a comparison a modern dslr has four different ways of metering light!

Thankfully center weight metering mode is easy to use and as long as you remember to adjust the exposure the result will be great!

So as a "this happens when you fail" example here is two images that show how badly underexposed some of the photos ended being for me:

So the next time you go out for some snow photography make sure to go into your camera settings and overexpose the image and you will see that snow will look white and not gray!

What is your experience when using a film slr and compensating for the snow?

Challenge yourself!

If you are feeling down and need to find that inspiration again then its time to challenge yourself!

I recently found myself being in a stage of non creative mode and finally decided to do something about it!

So i loaded my Canon A-1 with a 50mm 1.4 lens and a roll of Tri-x 400 b/w film and told myself go out and not to come back until i taken all 36 frames!

Well it worked allot better then i thought and not only did i take 36 frames i carefully composed but i also challenged myself to be creative!

So tomorrow (dec 10th) i am going to develop and scan the roll so you can see what i saw today.

So the lesson is to tell yourself to go out there and do something so that your day becomes allot better and you will feel great after accomplishing the task/s!

So what are you waiting for get creative and be feel great about yourself!

How do you get out of a non creative mode?

Please share your tips and tricks :)