Chiaroscuro

[Akira]

Inspired by some lunatic mood...

[JJChan]

Dramatic, beautiful tones via skillful processing. Thanks for posting Akira

JJ

[armando_m]

#2 is my favorite

[Akira]

JJ and Armando, thank you for kind comments.

The clouds backlit by the (full) moon have always been fascinating.  But freezing a moving cloud so that I can appreciate the details of its contour and texture is still a big challenge, especially because I only have a slow telephoto (Ai 200/4.0).  Having to raise ISO to 12,800 makes it difficult to get the usable amount of dynamic range as well.

I wanted to process these images in color, because I observed some iridescence, but the severely underexposed images shot at very high ISO made it, again, difficult to process in the way I like.

An f2.8 lens (70-200 zoom or 180 prime) or a faster 135mm (Sigma or Zeiss) could have been a bit more of help?

[ArthurDent]

I like the images as is, but, if you were going to try again, perhaps you could use a short prime, like the 50mm f/1.8 and then crop to get the desired angle of view?  Your discussion of the technical difficulty of taking the image was good. I wish more people would do that as I think it helps all who read to become better photographers. Thank you.

[Akira]

Arthur, thank you for your kind comments and encouragement.

For something like the first two images, using a standard lens and cropping could work, as they don't necessarily require the full resolution of the 24MP sensor, and one can shoot the scene either at lower ISO or faster shutter speed.

As for the last shot, however, I wanted to retain the patterns of the moon.  It was shot at ISO12800 and f8.0, so I could have lowered the ISO to 3200 and shot at f4.0 for less grain and a bit wider dynamic range.  But I'm not sure the detail of the moon could be captured with a 50/1.8 lens.  (I used Ai 200/4.0 lens for all three shots and not cropped.)

Nevertheless, the experiment according to your suggestion is well worth trying.  Thank you again!