| Howling at the Moon (and breaking the "Curse of the Babe") Text and photography copyright Kevin
Ferris
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| Since I was in NYC for game four of the 2004 World Series, I chose to photograph the eclipse. I'm a Met fan anyway, so I really didn't care about a Boston/St. Louis World Series. The fact that I wasn't invited to Busch Stadium had nothing to do with my choice. |
| There was an lunar eclipse on the night of October 27, 2004. Since we had a pretty clear night in NYC, I figured I would try to photograph the moon at various stages of eclipse. I had seen a fantastic composite photo of a lunar eclipse by Dan Neri on the Nature and Wildlife Photographers of Long Island website (www.nwpli.com). Dan's photo shows the eclipse phases from the beginning right through the very end when the moon has emerged from the earth's shadow. I had wanted to try to do something similar. However, shortly after the moon was in total eclipse, the clouds rolled in and I had to stop. I was unable to get any photographs of the moon emerging from the shadow. Although I couldn't photograph the complete sequence, I did have enough to show the progress from the full moon to the point of eclipse. After this, I didn't feel that bad about missing the World series. Who won? Events like a lunar eclipse do not occur very often, so we have to make the most of these opportunities. As I was on my roof photographing this event, I couldn’t help wondering if the eclipse would have any effect on the 86 year old “Curse of the Babe”. Did the earth's shadow temporarily suspend the curse? Will the Red Sox have to wait for another eclipse before they win another World Series? Only time will tell. |
Technical Information |
The photo above is a composite of eleven separate photographs at approximately ten minute intervals. Each was taken using a 500mm lens with a 1.4 converter. The camera used was a Canon 10D that had a 1.6x crop factor, so the equivalent focal length was 1120 (500mm x 1.4 x 1.6). At that focal length, each picture of the moon was pretty large in the frame. The images of the moon were reduced before they were combined on one page. The picture below shows the full frame of the first photo in the sequence (the full moon before the start of the eclipse). This gives you an idea of the original size of the moon in the frame. |
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The exposure for the early frames was 1/800 at F11 (see note below about exposure). I also had a Kodak pocket guide that had some general guidelines for exposing the moon in quarter phases. However, as the moon neared the eclipse, I was on my own. This is an area where digital has a major advantage over film. Using the digital camera, I was able to check the exposures to see if they were good. In addition, I was able to turn up the ISO setting when the moon went into eclipse so I could use a faster shutter speed (remember, the moon is moving so it will blur if you expose it for too long a period of time). |
Note About Exposure for the Moon |
The exposure for a bright, full moon is relatively simple because it is similar to a bright sunny day on earth. Therefore, you can use the same exposure rules for a sunny day on earth, like the sunny 16 rule or the digital equivalent 88’s rule. The general exposure for a mid-tone subject on a bright, sunny day can be determined by using 1/film speed at F16 (this is the sunny 16 rule). So if you are using a film with an ISO of 100 (or an ISO setting of 100 on a digital camera), the general exposure would be 1/125th at F16. The 88’s rule is just a variation of the sunny 16 rule based on an ISO setting of 200. Under the 88’s rule, the exposure on a bright, sunny day would be 1/800 at F8. This is about a third of an F stop off from the sunny 16 rule (using the sunny 16 rule, you would get 1/1000 at F8 based on an ISO of 200). The 88’s rule is a convienent digital equivalent of the sunny 16 rule because many digital cameras use a default ISO setting of 200. The key thing to remember is that these rules are for a mid-toned subject and should be adjusted when the subject is not mid-tone. The adjustments are the same as you would apply if you were using an incident light meter. If you expose your picture based on the reading of an incident meter, your mid-tones are fine, but your brightest highlights will be washed out. Therefore, you generally have to stop down a little from the incident meter reading in order to hold detail in the highlights. Conversely, you may need to open up a little to hold detail in the shadows. The same adjustments apply when you are using the sunny 16 or 88s rules. Using a digital camera at 200 ISO setting, the 88s rule has an exposure
of 1/800 at F8. However, since the full moon is brighter than mid-tone,
you need to stop down a little, so I used 1/800 at F11 a starting point.
I opened up a little as the eclipse progressed and more shadow covered
the moon. The exposure at about the halfway point was 1/400 at F8. For
the final frame, I increased the ISO from 200 to 400, and it was exposed
at 8/10ths of a second at F8. |
