I photographed the “supermoon” on Saturday night at Gasworks Park at the tail end of a Google+ photowalk here in Seattle. I wasn’t expecting to get too much, especially with a hoard of photographers on the same hill alongside (basically photographing the same thing) but I think I came out with a pretty cool image.
Photographing the moon can be challenging, since it’s a ball of light that is significantly brighter than the surrounding foreground and sky. So to balance the exposure of this scene I created three exposures: one for the houses and water (30 seconds), one for the sky and clouds (4 seconds) and one for the moon (1/20 sec). Then I used Photoshop to mask and blend the images by hand.
I photographed the “supermoon” on Saturday night at Gasworks Park at the tail end of a Google+ photowalk here in Seattle. I wasn’t expecting to get too much, especially with a hoard of photographers on the same hill alongside (basically photographing the same thing) but I think I came out with a pretty cool image.
Photographing the moon can be challenging, since it’s a ball of light that is significantly brighter than the surrounding foreground and sky. So to balance the exposure of this scene I created three exposures: one for the houses and water (30 seconds), one for the sky and clouds (4 seconds) and one for the moon (1/20 sec). Then I used Photoshop to mask and blend the images by hand.

Nicole S. Young is a photographer, published author, and educator specializing in Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography. She is best known for her books on food photography but is widely versed in various photographic genres, including landscape, nature, stock, travel, and lifestyle.
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Very nice.
So, it sounds like you didn’t bracket? I’m trying to picture how you would move the camera to meter the different parts of the scene and return the camera to the exact same position.
beautiful!! any reason you prefer to blend manually as opposed to the hdr tool?
Very nice! At first glance this reminded me of a Charles Wysocki painting, I guess it’s the way the houses are stacked.
Brycia, I was going to say the very same thing. My immediate thought was of a Charles Wysocki painting!
This photo is wearing more makeup than Victoria Gotti.
But it’s a beautiful composite
Awesome job Nicole.
That is awesome!!
I love the reflections in the water!
Excellent depth and nice light! Love this!
this is really beautiful. I loves what you did with the light.
Amazing picture and a nice detail i am in luv with this picture
I love the way you edited this image. It’s lovely.
Wow, that’s beautiful! I watched the supermoon, but without a tripod I had no chance to capture it. I’ll need to remember your steps the next time it comes around….whenever that is :D
So beautiful! Great job Nicole!
This is an incredible photograph! And so fun to find another Seattle blogger to boot.
By the way, saw that you’re attending BlogHer Food in Seattle next month…it’s my first time going…very excited for it. Hope to meet you there!
What a fabulous photo, front to back its just perfect.
omg, gorgeous. what a sight!