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Shot at a vineyard that I'm staying at in north-east Victoria.
10mm lens. 15 second exposure, and about six dumps of the flash as I ran around like a madman in the dark lighting up the tree and the vines...
White balance was set to Fluoro to bring out the blue in the sky.
Spot the Southern Cross...

about six dumps of the flash as I ran around like a madman in the dark lighting up the tree

I hear ya, gotta be careful of that to avoid gettign laughed at

I like the image, a bit of cleanign up of the stray lights and some distortion control would be the trick. If you have the opportunity to do this again, trying taking 3 images bracketed for merging to try and capture the detail of the moon, which in this case should be the primary focus? There is also quite a bit of noise..is this evident in the full res?

Spot the Southern Cross...

top left?

biggerry wrote:

Spot the Southern Cross...

top left?

Nah. I reckon just above the tree framed nicely by the clouds.

I am bothered by two things in this photo.
1. The two light sources. one behind the clouds & the other flaring low to the left.
2. The light doesn't come from either of the light sources. This bothers me even in paintings.
3. (who said I could count!) the light sources are blown way too far.

Also the bright lights at far right could have been cloned out (or dodged) to good effect
Also the stray light streaks low down & the two phantom legs (yours?) bottom centre right

Still nice attempt. I'll come and keep your glass warm if you want to try again. but you'll need to pick a vineyard in Orange or Mudgee.

Southern Cross is in the middle right of the top of the frame, that is Corvus top left...

I agree with Gerry and Greg.

You do need to use a slightly less ISO than 6400 for this sort of shot. Even on a 7D.

I would definitely bracket one for the moon, one for clouds to show movement, one for the tree (make the light more subtle with a torch)

I love what you're aiming for here, it's the type of shot I'm trying to learn more about right now and hopefully achieve, so seeing you trying this too and reading everyone's comments is so useful. As much as I try to 'get it right first time' in the camera rather than on the computer and avoid what feels (to this learner) like camera trickery, the inevitable need to bracket for different areas is certainly the conclusion I've come to now as I guess there's just too much to achieve and account for in just one shot and exposure.

For all the points raised though I think it's still a really interesting and neat shot - I rather like the distortion as it is; coupled with the two celestial light sources it adds to the rather otherworldly feel!

And, I must ask - are those ghostly little bouncing lights I see you running around with your torch?

Thanks for the comments folks. Most appreciated.

I only had a short time to take this, so I wasn't as methodical as I should have been.

I had started taking a few shots of the moon, (and failed dismally), but then put the wide on and had a go. I was surprised to see how much it looked like a sunrise shot, so I wasn't really concerned about blowing out the detail in the moon from that point.

As it turns out, I (think I) should have posted this pic instead:


Taken 20 mins earlier, at a far more sensible ISO of 1600, 20 secs at f4. A much better pic overall, I think. No ghost legs, more even light, and no misdirected flashes in the bottom left. Well spotted Greg!
I blame the wine.
I can't recall why I cranked up the ISO in later pics, but I upped the aperture to match too...
I blame the wine. Again!

And, I must ask - are those ghostly little bouncing lights I see you running around with your torch?

Yep. That would be the (red) pilot light on the flash.

Southern Cross is in the middle right of the top of the frame, that is Corvus top left...

You know your stars well. Is Corvus the False Cross?

No, corvus is the crow, the false cross would be well above the southern cross in this picture...

I like the second photo much better
I still think the lights bottom right need to be removed or toned down.

Big V wrote:Southern Cross is in the middle right of the top of the frame

Hey that's what I said