P#6: Capturing the New York Skyline at Twilight

Should you combine a photo of the moon with your New York skyline picture?

Jim Zuckerman: The next picture, my number 10418, is the New York skyline pre-9/11. To be honest, it's sort of hard for me to photograph the Manhattan skyline without the World Trade Center being there. So, I love this picture. It was taken at twilight, the same settings. (click the image for a larger version)

(10418)

Actually, this one was taken with film because this was a number of years ago. I used the formula that I gave for film before, the 10 seconds at f8 with 100 ISO. This was taken from right beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. I've always liked this very much.

This is the kind of picture that would really benefit from a moon being inserted, maybe a thin crescent moon.

A lot of people use the full moon. Unless it's done very, very well, it just seems to me a little trite, but when you put a thin crescent moon, people go, "Whoa, is that nice."

Let me just add this that if you do insert the moon, especially a crescent -- well, I shouldn't say that -- any time, you have to make it astronomically correct.

Audri Lanford: Yeah, I was thinking, "Hmm, where would you put it and how would it work?"

Jim Zuckerman: For example, when you have a full moon, it's opposite the setting sun. So if you have, let's say, a picture you took toward the setting sun after it set so the sky is glowing, it is bright and glowing. It's the sun, it's after it has set, but it's still bright. You knew that it set nearby.

You wouldn't put a full moon there because the full moon has to be 180º opposite. Next, if you put a crescent moon in, you have to rotate the moon so the illuminated part is facing towards the glowing sky.

That's because the sun is illuminating the moon. It has to be angled or rotated so that's obvious. You have to think about stuff like that otherwise it doesn't look right.

In conclusion

This photograph of the New York skyline pre-9/11 uses the formula Jim presented. To insert a photo of the moon into this picture requires knowledge of where the moon should be in the night sky.