Help with the Key West moon scene

[Patsy]

The Key West full moon was so pretty but I couldn't keep it from being overexposed without under exposing the rest. Is there a way to get the moon as it really appears and still keep the dock exposed? Suggestions?? Thanks.

[Chris F]

Patsy what camera, lens and settings were you using ?

[Patsy]

What an idiot I am. I mentioned "for anyone visiting the beginner site" but it was in the twitter line. The pic and info is in the beginner site. But I was using the D5100, 24-120 lens, tripod, ss.4, f4, iso 800.

[Phillip.Grobler]

Either take multiple exposures. and comine afterwards. Take raw photos overexposing the moon, looking at the histogram to just avoid clipping. and dodge and burn the image afterwards on the pc.

The above would be my guess and not from experiance.

[Phillip.Grobler]

Looking at the photo the range is probably to wide to do in a single image.

[jaytee]

Patsy, I know this isn`t answering your question, but I don`t think it`d look natural if you succeeded in getting the moon "correctly" exposed. That isn`t how our eyes would see it: we either look at the moon or the dock, and our eyes adapt to each subject - when we look at the dock our vision actually "blows" the moon as well, if you see what I mean.

I think your exposure was fine, but by all means play around with the various ways to get a greater dynamic range. I`d be wary of becoming a technician rather than an artist though.

Btw I liked your other photo Maybe a touch more sky, but too much will take away the lead-in from the top right.