Tonight is a whole moon. And whether you live within the country or the town, it’s nearly as good a time as any for this week’s Shooting Challenge : You’ll take a picture at night, but you’ll make it appear to be day.

The Challenge

Take a photo at night. Make it look bright and colorful, like day.

The Method

Get a tripod and a chair, because you’re going to want to suck plenty of light out of that night sky to make this work, which requires a protracted exposure-like a number of minutes. But an entire moon can make it easier, as it’ll technically put out as much light as very dim sunlight.

The exact plan for exposure could be tough to pinpoint and should require some fiddling…and living in a city can only confound your calculations. I’d highly recommend reading through this flickr board . It won’t take long, and it was the muse for this contest.

One member claims ” ISO 100, 1 hour @ f/8″ is the foremost. In fact, cranking your ISO will allow for a shorter exposure. And every step up in ISO essentially doubles your sensor’s light-gulping abilities.

At ISO 200, that same should take about 30 minutes. AT ISO 400, you’re at 15. At ISO 800 you’re all the way down to about 7 minutes and at ISO 1600 you’re way down in 3-minute territory. Remember, results will vary!

But folks that have experience in this system should definitely share their wisdom within the comments, as even our lead shot doesn’t quite follow these guidelines.

The Example

Our top photo is by Lawrence Andrade. It’s a 150-second exposure, f/4, ISO 200 with a Nikon D70s. You’ll discover more of his work here .

The Rules – READ THESE, SOME HAVE CHANGED

1. Submissions must be your individual.
2. Photos needs to be taken since this contest was announced.
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings, technique and story behind shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com, not me.
5. Include 930px wide image (200KB or less) AND a 2560×1600 sized in email. I know that your photo won’t fall into those exact high rez dimensions, so whatever native resolution you’re using is ok.
6. One submission per person.
7. Use the fitting SUBJECT line on your email (more info on that below)

Send your best photo by Monday, January 24th at 8AM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with ” Day” within the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameDay.jpg (960px wide) and FirstnameLastnameDayWallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) within the body of the email in conjunction with a story of the shot in a couple of sentences. And don’t skip this story part because it’s often probably the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!

For the last six months, I’ve been working on an incredibly exciting project called Philanthroper , that is now accepting beta testers. Check in to assist us build something which can change everything.

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This post is tagged: 30 minutes, dim sunlight, member claims, submissions, wide image