Crescent Moon Over San Francisco II, a photo from California, West

Photographer's Note

Here is another shot from last night, photographing the Moon over San Francisco. I found it tricky to get sky detail without burning out the city lights. This is about as good as I could get it (without blending two different exposures in photoshop).

Interestingly, the dark portion of the Moon was not at all visible with the human eye. Only long exposure (15sec?) brought it out.

erdna heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

Vagabond (5848) 2003-11-26 10:57

Excellent work. Amazing appearance of City lights and Moon

green (1014) 2003-11-26 11:15

Great shot of San Francisco. I like the composition; having Twin Peaks antenna, the TransAmerica tower and the moon compressed in the same shot is great. Did you took the picture from Bay Bridge?

njacobs_ (0) 2003-11-26 11:52

Well done... a well balanced shot.

acrylonithrill (368) 2003-11-26 11:56

Nice aura captured. The Moon is well composed with the skyline. Intresting feat.

hantulaut (3441) 2003-11-26 12:00

dark portion of the moonlight appeared because a long exposure, and the moon itself has moving. The bright portion of the moon become over exposure, but thats okay.
Nice shot.

AdrianW (2274) 2003-11-26 12:47

Great shot! It's nice to see an unusual shot of SF, and with the moon detail in the band of clear sky this is one, you've done very well indeed with the exposure here too. I'm wondering whether there's a slight CW tilt, try rotating it 0.4°CCW and see what you think. Excellent work :-D

greg (2835) 2003-11-26 13:05

I calculate your exposure to have been 10 secs... If you enlarge the image and measure how far the moon moved (see the double edge at the top - I got 3.6 pixels); divide by the width of the moon (44 pix), multiply that by the number of seconds in a day (86400), the angular size of the moon (0.5 deg), and divide by 360 (degs in a circle), you find your exposure!

The blue stripe in the sky is very unusual, but great for the composition. Nice shot!

[4] +

Clochette (8076) 2003-11-26 14:27

I admire the result you obtain, could you add in your notes the aperture you used ? Excellent !

nwoehnl (122) 2003-11-26 15:31

Wonderful picture, Sam. The long exposure resulted in an interesting effect on the moon (the fact that it moves in this dark blue band of clear sky is another treat of your composition). The Transamerica Pyramid and the other buildings are coming out great. Wish I was there. Well done!

ronners (10) 2003-11-26 17:09

Great shot Sam. I noticed this the other night as well, but I was driving down 101 at the time with no camera. Funny, as I remember it the crescent was thinner - I wonder if it appears differently in different locations? Anyway, you did a good job with the composition and holding the exposure. I'm not sure whether I like seeing the rest of the moon or not - it was more striking as a very thin crescent.

Motrem (2392) 2003-11-26 18:59

I am seduced by your photo. The lights of the city are impressive and the moon becomes one more for me. I propose nothing, I look simply. Technique of excellent exposure.
Je suis séduite par votre photo. Les lumières de la ville sont impressionnante et la lune devient un plus pour moi. Je ne propose rien, je regarde tout simplement. Technique d'exposition excellente.

Opus (0) 2003-12-28 10:43

Pretty darn nice for the situation! I'm no night-shot expert but I'd say this is a fine effort.

fotofreak (1677) 2004-01-02 22:09

This is incredible! And how you captured the moon actually moving stuns me! And if you look closely, you can actually see a few stars too!

About Gregs note...very informative about how he calculated the exposure time. Its amazing what we learn here on TE! Contratulations on an amazing experiment!

boof (634) 2004-01-08 5:47

dont know how I missed this. excellent exposure of the city and the moon makes the photo just by pearing out between the clouds, excellent city night shot.

dantor (122) 2004-09-28 12:42

Excellent composition. You have managed to strike the balance between the bright city lights and the mysterious sky. This photo would make a great poster.

peter1892 (1681) 2005-09-14 11:35

Very good - the exposure levels are just right & the POV is good too.

jdwyer264 (1084) 2006-12-09 14:27

Great shot a little damaged by the signature which immediately draws the attention away from the images internal focal points.
A nice image but this problem really takes away from that.
I don't understand people doing this as we are on your page we can see that it is your picture.

PaulgSaunders (95) 2009-09-20 7:22

Awesome photo, can't add anything that hasn't already been said but felt obliged to say thanks for sharing this.
Paul