RJD wrote:Good effort!

A few pointes tho..

It looks like the bright sun through the trees has thrown off the metering a bit, so underexposed the rider.

Three ways to solve this
Use flash(es).
Use + exposure compensation
Use a different metering mode ( centre weighted etc).

Also it looks like its shot at a fairly high shutter speed, this 'freezes' the action, makes them look like they have just stopped in mid air. Try slowing down the shutter ( Tv/shutter priority) to 1/80th or something, you will have to pan the shot a little (move the camera in time with the rider).

That shot could do with a bit of fill light, some contrast and a bit more colour and it would come up nicely tho.

thanks for that, might have to read manual for the camera will upload photo from my camera soon.

8 October 2011 is International Observe the Moon Night
http://www.worldspaceweek.org.nz/2011/

There are plenty commercial events on at Wellington and Auckland observatories to celebrate it as part of world space week however little 'ol Levin is hosting a more fun outdoor event. Their library is running a photography competition inviting everyone to get outdoors and take a photo of the moon. The winning photo will be enlarged and framed if anyone's interested in entering.

I live in the Wellington hills and would love to take a photo similar to the one featured for November in this calendar http://www.lpi.usra.edu/observethemoonnight/downloads/InOMN_Calendar_01.07.pdf. Do you think an image like this is possible or was it digitally assisted? What do you think? My attempts so far look nothing like it...

You would need something like a F4 600mm lens with maybe a 2x convertor,

A clear night, and a tripod, preferably away from sources ambient light.

I took this with a 400 on a 1.6 crop 7D


Silver Sliver by robjdickinson, on Flickr

Its not the whole frame, but its not a huge crop either.

IMO that calender pic is a big crop, taken with a long tele too. Possibly 2 shots as exposing for the moon & something else is often tricky.

I think I could do that with 7D/400 but it would be a massive crop (100%).

Also try using the photographers ephemeris to work out where & what time the moon will rise.

Heres a couple of photos i took with our camera(might have to start shooting something other than mtb ) The lighting isn't really right sorry

Tugboat has posted some amazingmoon pics in here previously - from memory shot with something like a 300m + 2x converter on his 1D? (he will be along shortly with the details).

That calandar shot looks like something from an eclipse?
Speaking of which, this is NOT mine - was published in the DomPost about 10 years ago...

Thank you for all the helpful tips. If anyone else would like to try for a horizon shot there’s a full moon due out on Monday, 12 September [AKL 5.49pm, WLG 5.51pm, CHC 6.01pm].

As for that calendar photo – does seem a bit hard to believe. Although, it was taken in the States and they have some pretty impressive astrophotography camera’s made there. Embraced my inner geek and attended an astrocamp in the Wairarapa where one guy had an imported Mallincam colour video camera mounted into a telescope that can take colour photos or video of even the outer planets with amazing clarity. You don’t even have to know where they are located – the internal GPS finds them for you. They cost so much that it’s the only one in NZ with just 300 or so elsewhere in the world.

Fortunately for the rest of us, most owners register to broadcast live for all to enjoy via http://www.nightskiesnetwork.com/

The moon is actually pretty easy to shoot. It's basically a disc of reflected sunlight so your conventional "I'm taking a photo at night" thinking has to be switched off.

Basic settings to stat with:
Shutter - 1/250
Aperture - f/8.0
ISO - 100-200

and vary a little bit to get results you want. It's also pretty handy to use liveview fully magnified to get your focus right using a crater as reference (which will also give you an appreciation for how fast the moon moves through the sky!!). As others have said at 300mm you'll be cropping pretty harshly to get the moon to a decent size in your finished photo so if you've got the means to go bigger either though extenders or by having deep pockets then this always good. Real close ups require thousands of millimetres which means either stacking extenders (and taking the aperture hit that goes with it) or mounting to a telescope. I have toyed with the idea of getting a decent scope and EQ mount because I'm starting to get a bit of an astrophotography bug (after hanging out here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/for ... .php?f=136 ) and would love to take things to a different level with some deep sky imaging.

To give an example that's utterly ridiculous. This is the kind of result you can get with an 8 inch reflector telescope!!



Full size... HERE

The photographer who took this (not me!!) posts on the Canon forums as megrac and is from Whangarei.

DHhucks wrote:Heres a couple of photos i took with our camera(might have to start shooting something other than mtb ) The lighting isn't really right sorry

Pan with the rider and hit the shutter, after practice you will get the rider in focus and the bacground blured (rather than how you have rider blured, background focus)

RJD wrote:Go for it

Done. 7d battery is charging as I type

Jelly. So keen to get a 5D Mk3 when they come out eventually. If its anything like the 7D (and better) it should have 1080p 50p, or 720p 120p (which would be jizztastic), full time auto-focusing during video and all that with kick ass ISO and FF sensor.

I'm pretty happy with crop sensor personally, and don't want to get a new suite of lenses. And I have no idea when I will even use video mode yet

Bigfoot wrote:I'm pretty happy with crop sensor personally, and don't want to get a new suite of lenses. And I have no idea when I will even use video mode yet

New lenses? You running EFS?

On my 60D I've got EF lenses, only 3 now, 135mm F2L, 50mm 1.4f and 20mm f2.8 USMs. Great on my 60D, should be even better on the Mk3 when its out. Just need to save up for a 24-70mm F2.8L now as a walk around lens.