Blue Moon

Hi everyone.

As much as I love taking photos of babies and children, I'm always looking for other opportunities to broaden my skills.  As I was walking to my car after work today I gazed up at the most amazing moon in the darkening sky, and thought "I've just got to capture that".

As soon as I got home I grabbed my camera, attached my zoom lens and took a few shots.  Now I have photographed the moon before, and it's not as easy as you think.  The camera, doesn't see the moon as you see it with the naked eye. 

Try photographing it yourself, and you'll see what I mean.  Here's the original jpeg I took:

As you can see, the moon in this jpeg image is very bright, but I've lost the shadows and definition.  I did however shoot a RAW image too  A RAW file is much larger than a jpeg image as it retains all the digital information as it was shot.  It is the equivalent of a negative from a non digital film camera.

With a RAW file, you can bring back the areas that have been over exposed, which you wouldn't be able to do with a jpeg.  Is that all as clear as mud....ok.  So after I edited the RAW image I cropped the photo so the moon was bigger.

 

Now doesn't that make for a more interesting shot.  The moon is much more planet like....not just a bright white ball in the sky.  You can actually see much more definition.  I'm really pleased with this shot, but I thought I'd have a little fun with it, and make it even more interesting and more of an artistic image.

I used the Lens Flare effect in Photoshop, to put a bright white light on the edge.

I love this effect, but then I decided to add a lighting effect filter to the image....and here's what I got:

It's more of a fantasty image now, but it just goes to show how versatile Photoshop is, and what fun you can have using it on the most common of everyday images.

I've just learned that tomorrow night will see the the biggest full moon in two decades, when it reaches it's closest point to the earth.  So you'll have to be ready if you want to see it,  I might even take some more shots, it should be spectacular.  Lets hope it's a clear sky.  If you are interested in the moon and would like to know more then just click on the link HERE

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Deborah Jane