# Please critique my work- Looking for help/suggestions



## klarocca (May 9, 2012)

Hey guys. Long time lurker, first post!

I took this shot on my 5d3 with 24-105 f/4 L. I am by no means an accomplished photographer, and was hoping you guys could view this image and give me some thoughts suggestions.

So how do you think I could make this photo better? Id love if you could tell me what needs to be improves, or whats good (if anything..)

Settings:
(I did some post-processing, increasing exposure, wb, etc)

Bulb mode- Exposure 194 seconds
f/22
Iso 100
AF- Auto, all 61 points







Thank you in advance!


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## klarocca (May 10, 2012)

Anybody? I particularly unhappy about the noise.. Can anyone tell me why this is?


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## nightbreath (May 10, 2012)

Hi klarocca,

I'm not sure noise is something you should be bothered about. The main thing for me in photography is content and the way you show it.

I wouldn't place a very bright object with much less bright objects in the same shot (moon and stars in your case), and the tree in the left bottom corner might have been cropped in a more pleasing way, like this:


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## nightbreath (May 10, 2012)

And you don't need long exposures to make a photo like this, there's an application that combines several shots into one to get the same result, but without long exposure noise:


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## klarocca (May 10, 2012)

Ok cool. I'm aware about multiple exposures.. So am I to understand that long exposures translate to noise? And if I do shorter exposures (raw) I can just up the exposure in post processing, correct? Is there a down-side to this? (as opposed to gathering more light in the shot).
Thanks!


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## elflord (May 10, 2012)

klarocca said:


> Hey guys. Long time lurker, first post!
> 
> I took this shot on my 5d3 with 24-105 f/4 L. I am by no means an accomplished photographer, and was hoping you guys could view this image and give me some thoughts suggestions.
> 
> ...



Composition is a bit odd -- you've got a centered composition instead of a more conventional approach which would put the moon further to the right. It might work better if you had something on the right to act as an anchor. 

About shorter exposures -- yes you can do this but at some point the sensor will clip the shadows.


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## bhavikk (May 10, 2012)

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here. A moon shot or star trails, or both?

Just the moon - I've done it using a 70-200mm @ 200 F8.0 and ISO 100 then just cropped it to get a "big moon".

Star trails - Best when its new moon (no moon). Either using 1 big long exposure or by stacking lots of 30 second exposures.

For getting both in 1 picture - Just stack the moon photo into the star trails.

Hope this helps.


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## K-amps (May 10, 2012)

dilbert said:


> klarocca said:
> 
> 
> > So how do you think I could make this photo better? Id love if you could tell me what needs to be improves, or whats good (if anything..)
> ...



The guy is probably a hobbyist.... probably looking for some simple (and free) advice to set him on the right track.

I'd say the moon is too centered. I didnt think you'd get that much flare from the moon but hey I always learn new things myself. Good shots of the moon are usually composites of 2 or more shots at different exposures if you want to get detail both in foreground and background. In this exposure you got some background but burnt out the moon. So it depends on the effect you want.


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## klarocca (May 10, 2012)

bhavikk said:


> I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here. A moon shot or star trails, or both?
> 
> Just the moon - I've done it using a 70-200mm @ 200 F8.0 and ISO 100 then just cropped it to get a "big moon".
> 
> ...



Thanks that does help. In terms of what I was going for, I kind of liked te spooky looking branches in the corner with the moon in the background. The star trails were an unintentional extra


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## klarocca (May 10, 2012)

dilbert said:


> klarocca said:
> 
> 
> > So how do you think I could make this photo better? Id love if you could tell me what needs to be improves, or whats good (if anything..)
> ...



Oh, and thanks for adding such an adequate lack of insight to my question. I am just an amateur photographer looking for some advice. Isn't that what people do on photography forums? Thank you nonetheless.


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## klarocca (May 10, 2012)

dilbert said:


> klarocca said:
> 
> 
> > dilbert said:
> ...



I do understand where you are coming from, but I think you're underselling the people here. I've seen some pretty rad photography on these forums. I guess I'm just looking at a place to start.


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## Kernuak (May 17, 2012)

If you were trying to get a spooky effect, then it doesn't really work. The moon is overexposed, it really needs to be exposed so that you can see teh detail, for that sort of effect or it needs to imply, by the effect of moonrays through a woodland canopy. To get the effect you were trying for here, I think you would really need to blend two shots, one with a tree silhouette and one with the moon, with detail. Also, try reading about some of the rules of composition, the most important one is probably the rule of thirds. While rules don't have to be (and in fact shouldn't be) followed religously, it is important that you know the most imortant ones, so that you can follow them when needed or experimnt with breaking them.


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## RLPhoto (May 17, 2012)

you shot @ F/22. This will guarantee a soft photo. I'd recommend an larger aperture that doesnt have as much diffraction and use an ND filter to lower the light coming In.


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