By moonlight?

[erick]

I was shown this photo today. Reportedly a single image taken under moonlight. What do you reckon? I haven't been able to quizz the photographer as yet but am told he "has all the good gear".

Star trails look like maybe only the order of minutes of exposure. Trees and grass show no evidence of movement (no wind?). Shadow edge (moonlight) is very sharp - I would have expected some blurring from movement of the light source relative to the rocks.

Has anyone obtained such well-lit shots using moonlight?

[duncan]

I'd bet on it being fake. It just seems way to bright in the shadows and as you said, the shadow lines seem to well defined.:shrug:

[ballaratdragons]

The star trails are approx 4 mins long.

I zoomed waaayyyyy in with Zoomfox and found:

1. shadows have no time blur,
2. grass and leaves have no time blur,
3. it was windy during the foreground shot,
4. Shadows are being cast from the South East.
It's a composite. :thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

Our company, being in advertising, edits a lot of images professionally & my bet is that this is relatively undoctored. Given good ambient light on a moonlit night, a couple of minutes yeilds a lot of light. I don't see why you'd need to alter a shot to get this result. Progress of shadows over the rocks will only move millimeters in this time, so I doubt that you'd see any blurring of the transition line. Has anyone heard of a serious photographer waiting for a still night? It happens you know..... :) The grasses may be bending over - but that exact same grass surrounds our place in Cooma - which is probably somewhere near where this shot was taken. The mountain grass is like this - even without a wind blowing to bend it over.

Cheers
Chris

[RB]

As far as I can tell it's real.
The EXIF data is intact, (but this can be altered :( )

The exposure was 459 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, 12mm FL.
Nikon D70, 8:49 PM 28-06-07 (almost full moon)

So I'd say it's real for a 7.5 min exposure.

But I have been known to be wrong before. :lol:

[RB]

I had another quick look and it looks like the star trails go through the trees so I'd say it's real.

Also since we're facing south, then the shadows look real for a rising moon from the east.

[ballaratdragons]

That's funny, I've never seen a star trail in front of a tree before :lol:

[RB]

I've seen this effect in my shots Ken, what happens is there's slight movement of the branchs during the exposure and you end up with this effect.

[ballaratdragons]

It looks good either way :)

[erick]

Thanks guys. Interesting!

It's from webshots:-

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2140222150032241858YVetdW

He's actually an airline pilot on a trip around Australia.