Need help with moon shots

[hank1105]

Just tried a few shots of the moon tonight since it was a clear night. I was shooting at 200mm, manual focus. The shot in the viewfinder was exactly what I wanted. However, I couldn't figure out the correct mixture of apeture, shutter speed, ISO. I also set the white balance to night. I was shooting at ISO 100. The focus was right on, but I just kept getting a non detailed photo. Tried manual mode at different settings and the correct exposure was right in the middle. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I also tried mirror lockup with self timer and of course the camera was on a tripod. Any pointers on shooting moon shots? Thanks.

Hank

[hank1105]

One little update, I had the white balance on Shade, not night, not even sure if that is a setting. Some of the pics did come out ok, but still confused. Again any pointers would be appreciated.

Hank

[who me?]

Hank,
One thing to remember. The Earth rotates at a different rate that the moon does with relation to the sun and stars. 1 Earth rotation = about 23 hours 56 minutes. 1 moon rotation(with respect to the background sun and stars = about 28 days) Thus if you watch the moon night to night, it rises about 40 minutes later each night.
At 200mm, the magnification shouldn't make the moons movement in the sky compared to the earths rotation that bad but it still magnifies the rotational speed. For example, if the 200mm lens magnifies the image 3x, then the rotational movement is magnified 3x.

What were your exposure times and F-stop? Go one F-stop down from maximum. Then try bracketing your exposures starting at 1/16 second to 1 second and review the shots. Then go from there. From what I remember, it is between a half and full moon right now so you should be in that timeframe somewhere. If you are shooitng at ISO 100, you might need to try 200 and 400.
The goal is to shoot the minimum exposure time you can and still get a good shot of the moon. Remember, less exposure time = less apparent movement of the moon from earth = sharper image.

I hope this helps.

[blackviolet]

treat the moon as if you are taking a picture in a sunny day. start around f/16@125 for 100 and play from there

[hank1105]

Wow, thanks for the information and I appreciate the detailed points. Here are some of the values of shots that came out good:

Shutter Speed - Av
1/100 4.0
1/4 32
0.6 32
1 32

All shots at ISO 100, Manual Focus and White Balance set to shade :?

I am going to try to PS them up a little bit, but they aren't the sharpest pictures. Please understand the settings above I was trying different things. They are most likely greatly off. It is weird because I always thought you want the exposure on a night shot to be longer, but your points on the movement of the moon make complete sense. Thank you again for the help.

Hank

[JLS Photo]

Take lots of pictures and review your histogram, you'll stumble upon the right settings. At least digital film is free. :)

This one was one of 15 shots I took--the one I finally liked. It is by no means a perfect example, but at least I felt I got ~something~ manageable.

Here are the stats:

Canon 10D
Sigma 50-500 @ 500mm
ISO 800
F5.6 (which was the max)
1/800th
Auto WB

It was also processed with NeatImage.

http://www.pbase.com/jlsphoto/image/24374325/original.jpg

[Mark_Cohran]

Assuming you used a tripod, your lack of detail was most likely due to over-exposure and not due to the rotations of any celestial body. When shooting the moon (which is exposed by daylight) you should follow the Sunny f16 rule. Set your aperture to f16, and your shutter speed to the nearest reciprocal of the ISO setting. So for an ISO setting of 100, you would shoot at 1/125th, f16. I would bracket at least one stop above and below that setting.

Mark

[robertwgross]

When shooting the moon (which is exposed by daylight) you should follow the Sunny f16 rule. Set your aperture to f16, and your shutter speed to the nearest reciprocal of the ISO setting. So for an ISO setting of 100, you would shoot at 1/125th, f16. I would bracket at least one stop above and below that setting.


I've gotten my best moon photos that way, except that I prefer to use a much longer lens in order to fill up the frame better.

Oh, well. Maybe you are a lot closer to it than I am.

---Bob Gross---

[hank1105]

Ok, again thanks for the info. I tried 125 f/16 again at 200mm, ISO 100. This time the pictures were much sharper but not as bright as I wanted them to be, but I am sure I can PS them later on. Not to sound like a total fool I never knew the ISO/Shutter rule, good to know :lol:


As far as the bracketing, I selected the red dot right on the center of the moon. There seemed to be some flare if I moved anywhere around the moon. I will continue to work with it.

JLS Photo: That is a sweet pic of the moon, nice to have 500mm :) I guess I could always zoom in.

Thanks again for everyones help. You guys rock!

Hank

[robertwgross]

[quote="hank1105"]
That is a sweet pic of the moon, nice to have 500mm :) I guess I could always zoom in.
/quote]

I use a Canon 100-400mm lens, all the way out, with two 1.4 teleconverters in order to mostly fill up the frame.

---Bob Gross---

[hank1105]

Wish I had that setup ;)

Here is a sample of the pic I took with everyone's recommendations:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v150/hank1105/CRW_0649_RJ.jpg

1/125 - f/16 - ISO 400

Not the best pic, but much better then earlier tonight.

Hank

[Morden]

I was excited about using the new Canon 900-2500mm f/1.0 to "shoot the moon", but I have been as yet unable to point it towards said body because it weighs 17.4 tons. :(

[ehughes]

http://www.shaystephens.com/mooncalc.asp

[Morden]

http://www.shaystephens.com/mooncalc.asp

Cool. 8)

[Steven M. Anthony]

I always thought you got the best moon shots when you asked people politely to drop trou and bend over... :wink:

[hank1105]

Morden: now that is a telephoto

Ehughes: That is an awesome site, put that one in my favorites already. Cool stuff. Might go out and try it again :lol:

[dtrayers]

I always thought you got the best moon shots when you asked people politely to drop trou and bend over... :wink:

:lol: :lol: How does one politely ask without getting a knuckle sandwich?

[robertwgross]

Here is a sample of the pic I took with everyone's recommendations:


You might try hitting that with one of the good color noise reduction programs (Neat Image, Noise Ninja, etc.).

I've found, on mine, that I can seriously improve 90% of the shots that had to use high ISO to shoot.

---Bob Gross---

[dtrayers]

I was inspired by this thread tonight. Thanks ehughes for the mooncalc! I tried the recommended settings with my 300 f/4 and the 1.4x TC.

1/200 at f/8 and ISO 100:

http://home.comcast.net/~dtrayers/photos/waxing-gibbous.jpg

Hey JLS it looks like we use the same action for a frame! I like it.

[hank1105]

Way better then my shot. You guys suck with your awesome lens and converters, just kidding :lol:

I will try that neatimage program or whatever it was called.

Hank

[JLS Photo]

Hey JLS it looks like we use the same action for a frame! I like it.

Mine wasn't an action--so much for being a little different. :wink:

[ron chappel]

Looks like your best one so far is a little dark.You're getting close!
By the way-are you using a tripod?
A tripod or -at least- a well braced camera is *essential* for getting sharp pics at this type of magnification

First things first though.Here is how you work through tricky metering situations.
The camera can't be trusted to meter properly when shooting the moon.
Because you only have a 200mm lens,the moon is a small circle in the middle.
The camera sees all that black and tries to make it brighter (camera meter's work in black and white and simply try to equalise the whole pic to middle grey-that's why it's impossible to trust a camera when taking pics in snow,white clouds,a coal mine,etc :lol: .
It tries to give a a longer shutter speed or larger aperture than is needed(and very likely both)

The easiest way to experiment with tricky lighting is to snap a pic then switch the histogram on.The pic next to the histogram will show the moon flashing on and off because it's waaaaay overexposed :D .

So-
See what settings you used the first time,switch to manual metering and go much darker
i.e a smaller aperture and much shorter shutter speed

Once you get a pic with the moon not flashing or only a little bit-
zoom right in on the display (with the thumb buttons) and see how the moon looks.
A properly exposed pic will look absolutally normal :) -just like JLS's above.

By the way-i tried this seriously recently
my best shots were around:
f11 (the lens was sharpest at that aperture)
1/200th shutter (approx,i forget)
ISO400 (i think)

In a roundabout way that is identical metering to JLS's shot and my picture looks utterly identical !
....ok,yes in mine the moon is angled differently.That's because we here in australia are standing upside down :lol:

I used a ultracheapo 400mm f6.3 lens (an old T mount adapted for EOS)
I took about 40 pics and could have used maybe 5 of them as the best were pretty much identical.Without a tripod i would have got maybe a couple of half sharp pics only!I also used neatimage.

[Biko]

Just had my 20D for a couple of days so still finding my way around the controls, took a moon shot last night 1/125, 5.6 ISO 100 using 100-400 lens at 400mm. I used a tripod.

http://www.btinternet.com/~i.c.palmer/moon2.jpg

[12345Michael54321]

I just want to pass on another tip on photographing the moon -

Many people think the best moon photos are of the full moon.

WRONG.

Photographing the full moon is like photographing a craggy-faced man with a bright, on camera flash. There's little texture in the photo. It's flat and uninteresting.

Rather, try to photograph the moon when it's side lit, just as you would photograph that man using a harsh, raking light, in order to emphasize the texture of his face.

Photographing the moon when it's, say, only half-full, yields pictures complete with interesting shadows, and illuminated mountain peaks just to the dark side of the terminator. (The terminator's where the illuminated part and the dark part meet.)

(The other two tips have already been more-or-less covered in this thread. First, use a really long lens. Second, the moon's about as bright as a sidewalk on a fairly sunny day; if you don't appreciate this fact, you will get a grossly over-exposed image.)