by emanuele.colonnelli » Tue Jun 25, 2024 4:02 pm
Saint Peter's and the Moon
by
Emanuele Colonnelli, on Flickr
I've been contemplating submitting this photo to APOD for a while. Honestly, I feel a bit nervous about being judged after struggling so much to achieve this result, but I think you might find the story behind it interesting and appreciate how I made it. I'll do my best to keep it simple and short.
For almost two years, I've been trying to capture the moon fading behind St. Peter's dome in Rome. Initially, I failed due to poor night photography skills, so I studied hard, practiced a lot, and invested my savings in better tools. Even then, it wasn't enough! Luck plays a considerable part in night photography. I meticulously planned this shot five times between 2023 and 2024, and every time I had the conditions I wanted (blue hour, full moon, clear sky), it started to rain. I began to think there was a spell preventing me from capturing it!
Last week, on June 17th, 2024, at almost 2 a.m. CET, I knew there was another alignment. I calculated it in advance, but I almost gave up since the moon wasn't as full as I wanted and the sky was too dark. In my dreams, I wanted to take this photo as "pure photography," meaning no HDR and minimal post-production. To achieve this, I needed the blue hour, but it's okay—some work in Photoshop won't kill me.
So, it happened. I captured a clear photo of the moon fading behind Saint Peter's, which is pretty meaningful for a native Roman like me.
A few words about the process:
The photo of the perfect alignment was taken at 2:06 a.m. on June 17th, 2024.
Shooting location: 41.90885120287977, 12.480983029723275
Camera: Olympus OM-1 mk1, ISO: 400
Lens: M.Zuiko 100-400 at 400mm, f/6.3
Tripod + remote shutter
I took several pictures of the moon every 10 seconds and selected only three of them. Moon exposure was 1 second at ISO 400. After the moon set, I kept the tripod in the same position to take a long exposure photo of the landscape, otherwise, I would have only captured the silhouette. In the end, I merged everything in Photoshop and did some tone mapping to harmonize it all.
If you want, you can verify the EXIF information in the JPEG file, even if some information is not 100% correct since it's the result of a time-blend in Photoshop. I know I'm paranoid, but I take honesty seriously.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pZoxY7][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53814338482_374feaf3f0.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2pZoxY7]Saint Peter's and the Moon[/url]
by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/199773989@N04/]Emanuele Colonnelli[/url], on Flickr
I've been contemplating submitting this photo to APOD for a while. Honestly, I feel a bit nervous about being judged after struggling so much to achieve this result, but I think you might find the story behind it interesting and appreciate how I made it. I'll do my best to keep it simple and short. 😄
For almost two years, I've been trying to capture the moon fading behind St. Peter's dome in Rome. Initially, I failed due to poor night photography skills, so I studied hard, practiced a lot, and invested my savings in better tools. Even then, it wasn't enough! Luck plays a considerable part in night photography. I meticulously planned this shot five times between 2023 and 2024, and every time I had the conditions I wanted (blue hour, full moon, clear sky), it started to rain. I began to think there was a spell preventing me from capturing it! 😊
Last week, on June 17th, 2024, at almost 2 a.m. CET, I knew there was another alignment. I calculated it in advance, but I almost gave up since the moon wasn't as full as I wanted and the sky was too dark. In my dreams, I wanted to take this photo as "pure photography," meaning no HDR and minimal post-production. To achieve this, I needed the blue hour, but it's okay—some work in Photoshop won't kill me.
So, it happened. I captured a clear photo of the moon fading behind Saint Peter's, which is pretty meaningful for a native Roman like me.
[b]A few words about the process:[/b]
The photo of the perfect alignment was taken at 2:06 a.m. on June 17th, 2024.
Shooting location: 41.90885120287977, 12.480983029723275
Camera: Olympus OM-1 mk1, ISO: 400
Lens: M.Zuiko 100-400 at 400mm, f/6.3
Tripod + remote shutter
I took several pictures of the moon every 10 seconds and selected only three of them. Moon exposure was 1 second at ISO 400. After the moon set, I kept the tripod in the same position to take a long exposure photo of the landscape, otherwise, I would have only captured the silhouette. In the end, I merged everything in Photoshop and did some tone mapping to harmonize it all.
If you want, you can verify the EXIF information in the JPEG file, even if some information is not 100% correct since it's the result of a time-blend in Photoshop. I know I'm paranoid, but I take honesty seriously. :-)