Full Moon Near Half Dome

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 29 April 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

Timing a full moonrise to coincide with dusk is not always an easy proposition - especially when shooting in the mountains. Moonrise charts can tell you the moonrise time, but one must factor in the time for the moon to rise over mountain peaks. If the light in the foreground has fallen off too much, the image looks dull as one must get the correct exposure on the moon. If on the other hand, the light is still too bright, it doesn't give a night feel to the shot. This image is a composite of three images processed from one RAW file and run through Photomatix Pro 3.0 High Dynamic Range software. I processed the first image for the sky, the second for Half Dome and the third for the foreground using Adobe Camera RAW. I let Photomatix Pro do its thing and then reopened the resulting HDR image in Adobe Camera Raw for some subtle tweaking. I then opened the image into Photoshop CS3 and did a bit of burning and dodging using a "soft light" adjustment layer and then used Noise Ninja to remove some noise which was showing in the dark sections of the pines. Would love to know what you think. My goal in creating an HDR image is to make it look as natural as possible. Let me know if you think I have succeeded. If you are interested in purchasing Photomatix Pro 3.0, please visit their website at Photomatix Pro 3.0 and use my code at checkout to receive a 15% discount: donsmithphotography. To see more of my landscape images, please visit my website at Don Smith Photography