HP 35s macro shot

Used the No. 2 macro extension tube on a 50mm. I had preset the aperture to f/10. Yongnuo 560-II flash is just a few inches off to the right the subject and about 2 inches above the calculator buttons. 1/64 power, no diffuser, RF trigger using a YN-603. Contrast boosted as much as possible in post.

Canon EOS T3i, 1/200", f/10, ISO 100

Moon at its zenith

This is how the moon looked when I faced east and then tilted my head back. I applied an infrared filter (located in the channel mixer adjustment) during post processing (after applying the usual stuff in ACR). This ostensibly improved contrast and sharpness.

Canon T3i, 1/100", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm

Moon: sunny side up

It's shape tonight reminds me of a sunny side up. Taken at dusk but the dynamic range was just too great for the muted bluish sky to register.

Canon T3i, 1/100", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm

Full moon on a pretty clear night

Canon EOS T3i, 1/125", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm

Full moon, no clouds in sight, and excellent visibility across the city. So I couldn't pass up taking a series of shots from 1/60" to 1/250" in 1/3 stop decrements (all at f/10 and ISO 100).

After making the typical enhancements in ACR, the image was further edited in PS. I duplicated the image and applied a soft light blending mode at 100% opacity. This increased the contrast. Created a channel mixer layer and ticked the monochrome box and then chose the green filter. Added a curves adjustment layer and pulled down the darks while maintaining the highlights. This further bumped up the contrast.

Moon Jupiter Aldebaran triad

A star, a gaseous planet and a rocky satellite. Aldebaran is at the lower left of the frame.

Canon EOS T3i, 1/4", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @150mm

Using the adjustment brush in ACR I decreased the exposure on the moon by 4 stops! and increased Jupiter and Aldebaran's by two stops.

1/40", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm

Used the Channel Mixer adjustment on PS, turned it into monochrome and applied the infrared filter.

Moon and Jupiter--fitting in a 100mm (APS-C) field of view

Canon EOS T3i, 1/8", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @100mm

In post processing I used the adjustment brush in ACR to reduce the exposure of the moon by 3 stops. Yes, it was practically all white originally. On the other hand I increased the exposure of Jupiter (via the ACR adjustment brush).

No comet, so I shot the moon

I searched for some half hour from early to late dusk, using a binocular to look for comet Pan-STARRS. Nada. It was a clear day--the first in many days--so I should've seen it. But it could be that it's now way low on the horizon and the buildings and trees were blocking it from view. Or maybe the air and light pollution in the city are just too much. Oh well.

For processing the shot of the waxing crescent I used luminosity masks and selected the Bright Lights and used multiply blending mode (100% opacity) to pull down the highlights. I then duplicated that layer again to further reduce the highlights. I duplicated it one more time but changed the blending mode to overlay (100% opacity) to bring up the contrast in the highlights. I hit CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E to effectively create a flattened image without deleting the various layers. Opened a Channel Mixer adjustment layer, checked the monochrome box, and applied a green filter.

Canon EOS T3i, 1/15", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm, cropped

Moonset: waxing crescent

Just a couple of days after the new moon. I had just arrived home and quickly grabbed the cam. This was taken late dusk. Because the moon was close to the horizon there's so much more atmosphere and particulates between the cam and the moon, making image sharpness far from being the best (when the moon is at its zenith)

Canon EOS T3i, 1/8", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm

I saw a plane (big commercial airliner) buzzing by and so zoomed out and took a long exposure. Its landing lights were on when I saw it but then midway across the shot they turned them off. Pilots must've detected me shooting them and so quickly went into subdued mode :) If it still isn't obvious, the plane was moving from right to left.

Given how the correct exposure for the moon is less than half a sec, Luna in this shot is way, way overexposed. Of course, I could've taken two shots--a long exposure and a short one in order to get both the streaking airplane lights and a correctly exposed crescent and then combined them in PS. Well, I didn't. Too bad.  

10", f/10, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @75mm

Bright red flower

Canon Powershot A480, 1/160", f/3, ISO 100, lens @6.6mm super macro mode

Post processed the JPG image in Adobe Camera Raw. Added vignetting and adjusted hue, saturation and luminance of red, orange, yellow and green. And did the usual stuff--boosted clarity, contrast, sharpness. Cropped into a square format.

Full moon at its zenith

Canon T3i, 1/60", f/11, ISO 100, EF 75-300mm III @300mm