Lunar Streaks: Recording Time as the Moon Rises and Sets

Photographing moonrises has become a popular activity for night photographers. A unique way of doing this is to record a continuous moon streak during very long exposures of 10 to 40 minutes.

The resulting streak shows subtle details of the differently shaded moon features, but does not clip the highlights. To prevent the moon from being overexposed, one has to use neutral density filters, which, in turn, forces a very long exposure to get enough detail in the landscape.

Combining this approach with an interesting foreground creates intriguing compositions with the moon crossing behind that foreground, as it rises or sets in the sky.

In this talk, Jürgen Lobert will go into the details of how to apply this technique, how to plan ahead and scout locations, and how to process the images, which often need compositing for best results.