35mm 1.4L is my go-to street lens.
At 1.4, it can give you artistic blur and low light performance. Its pricey.
Have the 85mm 1.4L IS ... portraits only not as sharp as the 35mm.

MC11 is the go-to adapter for Sony according to reviews ( for photography and not video).

Cropped looks best. Imho.
Keep a 1/3 of the moon and lower its brightness a little with a filter. (Someone did that already and I probably like that best.

Bracket next time and then combine but I think you have gotten that feedback already

The landscape and lights on the houses with the detail you were able to get is compelling in its own.

Forget the moon on this one and enjoy this gorgeous photo without trying to make the moon the subject. My personal opinion is that all the efforts to save the moon are not better than the original...other than some tweaking in the sky around the edges of the moon that Linda suggested.

The detail on the house's is really good especially given the low light.

Road down, the best, hands down :-)

If there was no risk to life and limb, I may have ventured to the center of the road and get a perfectly symmetrical pic.

Love the sky and the overall landscape. Good one.

It's a good technique and I use it on my monopod when shooting sports/wildlife (I dont have a Gimbel/Gitzo setup....although all my research and this thread is convincing me I will have to spend the $ to get a properly stabilized setup to shoot long exposure)

Rather than speculate (like I did to the previous poster), I watched Steve Perry's video on the subject and he has confirmed for me that the "downward pressure" for a long lens is for shooting sports/BIF/or non-moving wildlife stabilized down to about 1/15 sec @600mm. I am shooting at around 0.3 to 2sec...not exactly "long exposure" but probably longer than I want anything to be "touching the setup" ....whether my hand, eye socket, fingers on the shutter, wind etc. Hence I use Mirror-up with trigger or mirror-up with 10sec delay. (Focus in Liveview and shoot in Non-live view mode so I dont need to touch the setup to trigger the photo).

...and SteveP uses IS (or VR in his nikon case) to further help stabilize in the case of shotting wildlife.

The IS activates at half press but is otherwise off, if shooting long exposure, does the IS turn off after 2 sec in the long exposure? I can see this having a negative effect unless the IS stays on between the shutter opening and closing...I will need to research that unless someone has the answer.

hmmm...will check for moisture.....never thought of that...

Thanks.
I do this with my monopod when shooting sports/BIF as iit helps me isolate the target but thought that my own body movements even with the downward pressure would mess-up a longer exposure shot on a tripod.

(Works great for trying to find the receiver in a football game through the viewfinder and getting the spot-AF on the target....wasnt sure it would be as good given the lack of sturdiness of the travel tripod. I will try it next time nonetheless....can't hurt and I have lots of "film" :-)

IS was on I believe but I may have shut it off as I was trying different methods (IS on/off, F8-F18, playing with ISO/SS/ND gradient to see which combo was most effective for getting the blur and still getting the exposure I wanted.

It was a hazy day and yes, its several miles away across the canyon. There was haze and that for sure could have affected the AF. (I tried Liveview and Mirror down AF with triggers and also withg 10sec timer on the shuttger release.

...and I like the fog too....
see photo I got on the same day at the top of the Na Pali coast :-)

....will look into the tripod upgrade I think...

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Will try it....I would think that the wind would need to be 0 with leaf movement etc wrecking the bracketing. I suppose you could go into photoshop and mask the water area with the bracketed shots and then just use one of shots to do the unmasked areas around the water so the tree/leaf/cloud movement would be eliminated...

I will do more research on the variable NDs. They are basically 2 polarizing filters that are opposite each other. So effectively 2 more pieces of "glass" that are not designed the level of the quality of the lens. I was shooting at 100iso on the 70D and 50 ISO on the 5dMkiv. shooting at F9-18. Needed the ND to allow the shutter speed to go high enough to get the creamy effect.
I did as you recommended in terms of the stock being at the apex of the tripod legs (no extension). I did not hang a weight (may try that next time but I fear my BeFree Manfrotto travel tripod will just give it up)

Thanks for the feedback !

Thanks for your response .
My thoughts...

I think you were asking too much of your travel tripod with a heavy camera and a long lens at long exposure.

There is usually a lot of air vibration around water falls.
I was pretty far away (probably several miles) on the far side of the Waimea Valley. There was very little wind (if any).

What did you focus on and did you lock focus?
I focused on the top of the waterfall (F9.0) shot some at F12-18 but similar results.

Was IS turned off?
No. Heard competing opinions about this. In both cases, they are fairly new lenses with the most recent IS tech and was told that it doesnt matter. (Although I should probably test that)

Exposure on the first one seems a bit funky. Too much PP maybe?
It was exposed in the middle but lots of haze (which could contribute to sharpness for sure). Dehaze was used in pp in LR so I should be happier with what I got here:-) Lighting was not perfect either as the sun was not fully up and the waterfall/valley was not in direct sunlight yet. I am sure that is the biggest contributor....

A good prime will usually be better than a zoom but a prime won’t compensate for a shaky tripod.
agree.

Extra pixels won’t help.
...certainly not any blur....may even make it appear worse....but if the focus is nailed and vibration/blur are eliminated, I hear it can be incredible.

It is hard to sit perfectly still for 10 seconds.
The 10sec was shutter timer. The exposure was between 0.5 and 1 sec.
I had seen a video from Thomas Heaton that showed for longer lenses especially, if you touch the camera or flip the mirror, it can take several seconds for the image in the viewfinder to stop "moving"

I am reasonably happy with the results as this is not my area of expertise but looking to learn all I can.
Thanks for your response. Will definitely have to invest in a better tripod :-)

Looking for some techniques for creating that creamy waterfall look.
I will post what I do and others please chime in with any other techniques.
Posting some pics here and if you pixel peep you will see there is the effects of vibration or lens issue...not sure which. I was using my 70D with 24-70F4LIS lens so not the highest quality setup and I was in a rush so the trek guide pushed the button for me (2 sec delay). if you look at the little petals on the rocks you can see the effects of the lens or camera movement. Generally pleased given the setup time I had but I am not sure how much better they can be. I don't know what I should expect.
The tall waterfall was with a 5dMkiv with 70-200 on a tripod.
What would I do differently to get better/sharper pics?
(they are heavily edited in LR ...no Photoshop).

So far, here is what I do:
Tripod
ND Variable filter
Mirrorlock up
Triggered or 10sec delay (allow any mirror slap vibration or "human shutter button pushing" to settle out.
Tried to stay out of the wind. (there was very little to none)

Q:
1) How much does the quality of the tripod contribute to the shake? (I had my BeFree travel tripod which is well undersized I think.)
2) Would shooting with a prime make a difference in the sharpness? (ie I am expecting to much pixel peeping goodness from the 24-70 and the 70-200?)
3) Do I need to be using a 50mp sensor camera to capture more detail?
4) How much does the ND filter affect sharpness/detail (using a Hoya Variable ND circular filter)

Any additional tricks or techniques would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Ditto.
This is what I do....
If the lighting on the speaker is multiple stops away from the backdrop (ie extremely high dynamic range), don't let the camera decide in any mode as even slight framing difference could swing the exposure significantly. Take a few test shots, check your histogram, and then fire away.

...she knows if I fall in, it will mean an upgrade to a 1dx and a 100-400mkii. She will not release the funds...cheaper to keep me in the boat.

We were blessed with 4 breaches in 24 seconds
Boat captain was losing his mind as he hadn't seen a breach that week and was just as jacked as the rest of the boat.

Numerous tails and flipper shots too ... and some half-breaches (peeks) in addition to the full breaches. Clearly there was another whale very close to the peeking Whales, evidence by these pics.

No one knows why they do this...

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Will look into that..Thanks!