Lunar Eclipse - Composite and an HDR for fun

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Been working on the last two images from the lunar eclipse last night.

First shot is a direct rip-off from David Bailey's idea of a composite (I'm always stealing David's good ideas):



Second is an HDR (7 bracketed exposures) I took of the moon just to see what the results would be. The normal HDR processing showed minor improvements of the craters at the edges, not enough to be that impressive but the tonal edit of the HDR came out unique enough to share. The light at the bottom of the image is from my patio (you couldn't see it at the time the image was taken):

Looks like some sort of crease running through the upper quadrant. Don't know what that is...

Fun stuff! Clouds killed off any hope of seeing the moon come out of the eclipse but reading what others have said I think we got pretty lucky to see as much as we did.

_/oe

[Jake]

Awesome composite! I tried to shoot the eclipse with my 200mm and they didn't turn out very well.

The HDR one doesn't really do much for me though.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Originally Posted by thejakestir

The HDR one doesn't really do much for me though.

Heathen.

[GUER03]

Joe that would be an awesome print. I was so mad because I couldn't get a good shot because of the clouds. You got some great ones.

Albert

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by GUER03

Joe that would be an awesome print.

I agree. Very "artsy."

[juliema]

I like that composite. what lens did you use?

[Daylon]

Joe - great shots (as usual) - I'm always impressed by the professional "finished" look of the stuff you post up on here...

Need to get off my lazy @ss and put some borders and a cool signature on my stuff....lol

D.

[z-monster]

Hey Joe, you can create an HDR from a single RAW image.

Open the RAW image in Bridge, save as a .tiff in photoshop
Open the RAW image in Bridge again, adjust the exposure -1.00, save as .tiff in photoshop.
I open the 2 .tiff images in Photomatix Pro, merge to HDR and apply Tone Mapping.
Next I take the new image and open it in Photoshop and adjust as necessary.

Tone Mapping is what makes an HDRi what it is.

Who dares to blasphemy me?

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Originally Posted by juliema

I like that composite. what lens did you use?

Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR with a TC14EII teleconverter (which equals 550mm)

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Hey Justin,

In the experiments I've personally performed, I've done it the way you describe and I've done it with bracketed images (3, 5 & 7 stop differences). For me, the bracketing produces better results. Finer details and a much more realistic image. Using your method, which I won't deny works, the results look more "manufactured" (for lack of a better word) which can be a good thing as an HDR photo has a quality to it that most people really enjoy viewing.

But for my work, bracketing is the best solution.

_/oe

Originally Posted by z-monster

Hey Joe, you can create an HDR from a single RAW image.

Open the RAW image in Bridge, save as a .tiff in photoshop
Open the RAW image in Bridge again, adjust the exposure -1.00, save as .tiff in photoshop.
I open the 2 .tiff images in Photomatix Pro, merge to HDR and apply Tone Mapping.
Next I take the new image and open it in Photoshop and adjust as necessary.

Tone Mapping is what makes an HDRi what it is.

Who dares to blasphemy me?

[jerrykr]

layering multiple shots is also a good way to get rid of noise, as it's random nature smoothes out in the layers.

layering multiple iterations of a single shot, the noise will be in exactly the same spots.

Great stuff, as always Joe!

[RDM]

Originally Posted by z-monster

Hey Joe, you can create an HDR from a single RAW image.

Open the RAW image in Bridge, save as a .tiff in photoshop
Open the RAW image in Bridge again, adjust the exposure -1.00, save as .tiff in photoshop.
I open the 2 .tiff images in Photomatix Pro, merge to HDR and apply Tone Mapping.
Next I take the new image and open it in Photoshop and adjust as necessary.

Tone Mapping is what makes an HDRi what it is.

Who dares to blasphemy me?

Try doing that with one RAW image that has a 7+ stop difference (aka blown out highlights). Not the same.

Tone Mapping adjusts the HDR image so that it is displayable on your common computer screen.

That's your lesson for today.


PS: Joe, Nice work! Don't have a long enough lens here to even do that.