[naios]

Hi all. A question about technique. I have tried the last few evenings to take night shots with the moon in the background. The shots were taken on my tripod and the foreground ends up looking very nice (ie. trees are nicely moonlit silhouettes) and the clouds seem sharp enough, however the moon looks indistinguishable from the sun; a big glowing ball with no detail. So, as a beginner I was hoping someone could provide me with some good tips. I am pretty sure I remember setting it to the maximum F setting for my camera (Canon S3 IS).

Thanks.

[orangepeel]

do 2 exposures.

one for your foregound and one for the moon.

You can find the correct exposure for the moon by setting to spot metering and point right at it.

[Boofers]

Orangepeel,
Have never done that, I do use manual when shooting moon, get sharp pic's some times and other times to slow. This is the 2nd time in 2 days that spot mode has popped up, I used spot mode for over a year and never really think I got it right, but I am trying harder this last year to make better exposures, good point, thank you,,must think more, must think.

[orangepeel]

i only use spot metering coz I can't tell what the exposure should be. I wave the camera about the bits I want to expose for, note the values the cam comes up with then switch to manual and do multiple exposures around the range.

Dunno if it's right or wrong but seems to generally work for me.

Unless of course the subject is too small. Like the moon @ 18mm

[dogdots]

Orangepeel when you take two pictures and want to put them together do you do that in photoshop in layers?

[orangepeel]

that's how I'd do it ye. I'd mask the top layer and brush in the areas I want shown.

[dogdots]

Thanks! I thought that was the way to do it. I haven't played with my layers in photoshop yet. I know I should. They say once you learn---you will always us it.

[naios]

Thanks very much. This will give me a good reason to practice working in Photoshop (Elements) a little bit.