A Bit of Knowledge: Digital Compositions & Editing - Earthshine, Thin Crescent & Full Moon

Every full moon, activity on my blog definitely increases. I found the source of that activity. Vampires, werewolves, Baba Iagas, and witches are reading and cooking stuff here. No, no, none of that nonsense. It's my two posts from 2007 and 2009 that are causing all the trouble—how to take pictures of the moon. Once the full moon shines in the sky, everyone reaches for their cameras and tries to snap photos, but then they realize they need help, and thus the Internet search for tips starts.

As a result, I get a lot of hits because of that. This also proves that 'it has to do with statistics, not lunacy', adding further support to the activity article. It does not prove why I continue to have crazy dreams during a full moon; last time I was a security guard for our Prime Minister [Canada], and it wasn't a happy ending for me. Anyway, the article reads:

"There is a good reason why there may be more crime on the nights of a full moon; it has to do with statistics, not lunacy. People are more active during full moons than on moonless nights. An especially beautiful full moon may draw families out into the night to appreciate it and lovers to local necking spots. Muggers and other criminals who ply their trade at night also use the moon's illumination to carry out their dirty deeds."

Source: Strange Things Do Happen at Full Moon, LiveScience

Now for the real stuff. I have so many photos of the moon that I am going to have some fun and do some digital editing. I will continue to photograph the moon, just in case there is some activity going on, and I wouldn't want to miss that. My first digital composition is below: a gull and the full blue moon.

Many nights ago, I tried to photograph the crescent moon. My goal was to capture the earthshine, a slight illumination of the moon by the earth. I was successful, but the crescent was just one bright crescent and some earthshine. When I was taking pictures, I would only get one or the other. So I decided to 'cheat' a bit and create a digital composition to showcase both in one shot. However, I will continue to work on the settings to get that nice crisp crescent moon with earthshine, a knowledge topic for another day, and hopefully my equipment is capable of handling it.

Digital Composition: Crescent Moon Earthshine Taken Minutes Apart

To compose this combination, I just cut out the crescent moon and superimposed it on the crescent on the earthshine photo. The crescent on the earthshine is a bit larger because I couldn't keep my camera very still. I did a mistake. Since I was very much multitasking—shooting the moon, making dinner, and trying to entertain Matthew—I improperly mounted my Canon 100-400mm lens on the tripod. Since 100-400mm is a heavy lens, it comes with a tripod mounting ring that mounts the lens to the tripod, and the digital camera is the floating one. I mounted my camera on the tripod, and the lens was the floating one. A piece of advice: don't do it; you can potentially damage the contact between the lens and digital camera.

Digital Composition: Earthshine and an Almost Full Moon from a Month Ago

To compose this combination, I took my nice-textured crescent moon and full moon from last month. aligned the crescent with the full moon, placing the crescent on top. I rotated the moon, changed the moon's opacity, and erased the black background from the crescent moon. I adjusted the intensity on the Erase tool for more blurred edges. I sharpened both images using the Unsharpen mask, and then I applied a sepia Photo Filter to give a sepia effect.

'Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.' ~ by Les Brown, International Motivational Speaker and Author

~ Anna