Just Mooning Around

[ratsalad]

This is my second attempt at the moon, last attempt (July 12th) failed dismally

Supermoon by Rat.Salad, on Flickr

Supermoon by Rat.Salad, on Flickr

[Gate Keeper]

Hi John, great photos first off. From my discussions with the club astronomers, they like to see photos of the moon in crescent and in shadow. Easier said than done, when it is now possible to zoom up close using super zoom, but keeping the detail and reducing the noise without losing clarity is another challenge. Once I have the shot lined up on a tripod I use a timer, as my camera does not have a remote. As you know the moon is constantly moving. Another challenge. I took this photo on the Helderberg Mountain in South Africa on 18 December 2013 and used Lightroom 4 to reduce the noise

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1407766478.795444.jpg

[ratsalad]

Wow, that's fantastic

You're not the first person to mention using post shot processing, I have to get away form the thoughts in my head that it's cheating, when it's not, it's enhancing. Apart from cropping my shots were as they came out of the camera, I could probably make them better in PS or LR

Thanks for the input

[Gate Keeper]

Thank you for that John. Alan suggested I add on a Black and White filter to reduce the brightness. The shutter speed on my little Canon won't go lower than 100/sec even in P mode. The photo above was the best out of about 30 snaps. As for editing a photo, it is possible to anything if you know how it works. I would never accuse anyone of cheating for doing post photo editing. I encourage creativity and a couple of the members such as Blue Jon and Flying Banana have been quite adventurous in this respect. I take my hat off to them How are you getting on with your new camera John, has it lived up to your expectation or exceeded it?

[ratsalad]

Black and white filter? hmmm might look into that. I'm still learning the best settings for the type of shots I'm taking, at the moment it's a case of fiddle, twist then fiddle and twist a bit more then shoot and change everything and try again...

I love the camera, but with it being an entry level model it lacks a few things I would find useful, such as a faster flash sync speed, max on the D5300 is 1/200th which seems fairly normal for today's consumer DSLRs but my old D50 synced at 1/500th, I miss that. The other thing I miss is the AF motor in the body, mine uses lens mounted AF motors, which forces me to use manual focus on some older lenses.

But on the whole I'm doing so much more with it than any other camera I've owned. I'd love to get out more and take some landscape, architectural shots etc. but my arthritis limits the amount of walking I can do.

[Gate Keeper]

I have the D5000 which I keep in Kenya and loved to use it for birds in flight as it's lens is up to it better than the Canon bridge. Whilst I am here I will order a remote for the Nikon. I recently bought a Jessops x2 lens adapter second hand for £20 which will be great for the Tamron 300mm, to double it to 600mm.

I find the auto focus a nuisance and turn it off if I am trying to capture a bird of prey in flight, for fear of losing the shot. I suffer from a tremulous hand and sometimes have to ask SWMBO to take the shot. Not ideal but she doesn't mind. Having arthritis is a blight what with the pain and limitations, I really hope medicine comes up with a cure soon. I am glad to hear you are enjoying the D5300. The Nikon lenses are expensive and I use the Sigma or Tamron as alternatives, given the cost of everything. I look forward John to seeing more of your photos being put up. We are very lucky to have you here, plus some excellent photographers on the forum willing to be helpful, share their knowledge and different experiences on and off-line

[ratsalad]

Thanks for the words of encouragement, I hope I can live up to them and get better, I feel I've learnt so much in the few weeks that I've had it and fear I suffer with a bit of info overload lol.. which is why I see something I like on here or youtube and have to try it even if if I fail the first few times

[Rocket]

Originally Posted by ratsalad

Thanks for the words of encouragement, I hope I can live up to them and get better, I feel I've learnt so much in the few weeks that I've had it and fear I suffer with a bit of info overload lol.. which is why I see something I like on here or youtube and have to try it even if if I fail the first few times

I find it a great way to learn if you just want to do it as a hobby. You can choose what and when to read up, or even watch video. I did the same last week with trap focus and macro with flash.

All good fun.