THE DARK ROOM -- Developments of the evening scene

[Crow Haven]

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif Hey, stopped by to see what's been "developing" (yikes! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/eek.gifsorry for the bad pun http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif) -- those are good shots John! The focus is the really tough part and it can be really trial and error. I like the moon with the house scene too, that's very nice. I've also seen evenings with a bit of wispy cloud and fog around the moon which can make it look like there's a bit of glow or halo around its edges like that. The moon in the blue sky reminds me of a time when I witnessed a beautiful total lunar eclipse in Washington state from my front yard. The date was Sept. 26, 1996, and it was also a "Harvest Moon" and at 7:30 p.m. PDT I drew a color picture of it. The sky, John was the shade of blue in your last pic, the full moon was, though a glowing shade of soft peach/pale orange and really looked spectacular. There were spruce, pine and fir trees in the distance, and also below the moon a ways to the right and just a bit above the tree tops was a very bright shining "star" -- but this actually was Saturn! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[John Rayner]

Tried playing with the manual focus a bit last night will try some more tonight... When I am not in focus, it is hard to get the camera in focus...

Still playing and learning, learning and playing...

[Mike S]

If you are going to try and focus John, PUT ON YOUR GLASSES http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif gonna try to take a few shots later on when the moon gets closer to the horizon (rooftops)

[John Rayner]

Hi Mikey,

Manual focus is hard, particularily for one with bi-focals. My vision is fuzy most of the time even with glasses. So what looks good to my fussy eyes, might be real fuzzy to the camera.

Here are the best shots from tonight. These are all autofocus...

http://img286.echo.cx/img286/6158/1upload9kw.jpg
52 DPI

http://img273.echo.cx/img273/6378/1upload8qb.jpg
300DPI

Make - PENTAX Corporation
Model - PENTAX *ist DS
Software - *ist DS Ver 1.02
ExposureTime - 1/500 seconds
FNumber - 5.6000
ExposureProgram - 1 (manual control)
ISOSpeedRatings - 200
MeteringMode - 3 (spot)
FocalLength - 300 mm

http://img286.echo.cx/img286/8463/2upload7hw.jpg
29DPI

Make - PENTAX Corporation
Model - PENTAX *ist DS
Software - *ist DS Ver 1.02
ExposureTime - 1/2000 seconds
FNumber - 5.6000
ExposureProgram - 1 (manual control)
ISOSpeedRatings - 200
FocalLength - 160 mm

[Crow Haven]

http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gifFunny thing about focusing...yeah, with cameras ya better leave the glasses on...but with viewing through a telescope oftentimes you don't need to wear glasses, just focus the scope and that will do unless you have some lens aberations like severe astigmatism which still interferes.

I was looking back for something about the orange lunar eclipse I mentioned earlier and found a colored pencil sketch I had made of it in a logbook. I just really liked the contrasts of the moon and sky color. Here's a PS modified version of it. Saturn was very very bright and in opposition that evening...this was drawn at about 7:30 p.m. PDT.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...e9_26_1996.jpg

[John Rayner]

hi Maya,

on the full moon I will have to do a picture of the most awesome moon shot I ever messed up... got me hooked on trying to take pics of the moon tho...

BTW, Nice picture... I had a planet next to the moon for the last 2 nights, but I cound not get a picture of it and the moon at the same time with being a big dot and wittle dot...

Here is the best of tonights shots... Brighted a little by using a brightness transparency in xara.

http://img273.echo.cx/img273/8340/1upload7xb.jpg

[Mike S]

Originally posted by John Rayner:
Hi Mikey,

Manual focus is hard, particularily for one with bi-focals. My vision is fuzy most of the time even with glasses. So what looks good to my fussy eyes, might be real fuzzy to the camera.

Here are the best shots from tonight. These are all autofocus...

john why are the 300dpi pics so small? they look like they might be good. to small to tell, i just noticed that the big ones are 29 50 dpi. maybe thats why they look blurry. just a thought. if you can email me the 300dpi one at full size. as long as it isnt over 10 meg should be ok. send to either one of my emails.

[John Rayner]

Hi Mikey,

Sent you a couple... they are over 1 meg total... in your gmail box... No... I did not send them in raw format...

I am going to play in the raw at the full moon... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif Probably get yelled at for that crack too... Oops I said crack in that same paragraph as moon... Now I am gonna really get in trouble. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/eek.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

Hi Maya,

Here is that doodle I told you about... A harvest moon rising bewteen 2 peaks in the Rockies. It looked huge! FAntastic... and didn't know how to use the 35 mm I had with me...

http://img290.echo.cx/img290/6338/2upload1ip.jpg

[Mike S]

hey John those shots werent there earlier.those are a big improvment. did you set the manual focus o all the way out or did you focus it?
yea i saw the email gonna take a look in a few thanks

[John Rayner]

Hi Mikey,

I think one was autofocus, the other was manual focus. Both are at 96DPI. The "blurry" ones where enlargements... down to some pretty low DPI. Maybe a shot looks "blurry" right before it gets grainy. The problem with this camera, it is very hard to see the graininess... usually a camera will start to get grainy at close to 200%... enlarge these shots to 200% and the moon will be bigger than your screen. It is normally about 3/5 of the screen.