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William Mathe
Denver, Colorado, USA
08/10/2022
07:58 pm

Equipment Details:

Camera body: Canon R5
Lens: Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L III
Tele extender: Canon 2.0x III
Tripod: Manfrotto
Head: Wemberley Gimbal

Post-processing Details:

Processed in Adobe Camera RAW to improve foreground brightness
Clarity and dehaze features used to improve overall definition
Cropped about 20% in Photoshop to improve and tighten framing of the image
File saved as full resolution TIFF and JPG and then reduced to a low res JPG (uploaded here)

Image Details:

This is the first night of the full moon phase of the Sturgeon supermoon rising over the Denver International Airport.
The air quality in the summer is always mediocre at best with the heat causing air convection currents, the overall humidity and haze layer degrading optical quality. Last night the wind was extremely gusty buffeting the camera and causing significant camera shake. To counter the shake I had to shoot faster than I would have liked at 1/800th of a second. Originally I started shooting at the full 400mm reach of my lens + 2.0x extender = 800mm at the minimum f/11 aperture. As I had to wait for the moon to get above the haze layer I widened out the lens to approx 330mm x 2.0 = 660mm and f/11. This image taken at ISO 2000. My "technique" is to lock in the slowest shutter speed that is fast enough to overcome any camera shake--which is mostly dependent on the wind conditions. I use the fastest f/stop I can and then adjust the ISO as needed throughout the duration of the shoot. I'll take the beating on the graininess of the image as I'd rather have the grain than blur from camera shake. That's how I roll and as always I appreciate your comments and suggestions for improving my images or process. Best to all...Bill