Moon Shots. What do you think?

[CameraMan741]

looking for some Critique on these two moon shots. first time i was able to see the moon from out house in about a month. lol

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2769395063_0738d42937_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/2769395011_1567340903_b.jpg

BTW, first time shooting the moon. tell me how i did!!! be as rough and rude as you want!

[Dusty]

Wow lovely shots, well done, nice and sharp !!!

Seems like there's some shadow missing though.......:o

[CameraMan741]

lol. i wish i could have caught a shadow, weather it be an elclipse or just a half or cresent moon. would have loved the craters to show...

[Canadian Techdiver]

Nice shots... I am new at this two. here is a picture from my second try...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=554643

[slimninj4]

Great job at these. I have also been working on getting a good shot of the moon. Mine still come out a bit blurred at 200mm. What focal distance did you use for these?

[polarbare]

<insert comment about rule of thirds from someone here>

Nice shots of the moon. I'd consider either having the moon take up the whole frame, or making it a smaller subject to show the vastness of space surrounding it.

[Canadian Techdiver]

rule of thirds I get it but the negative space looked funny to the right or left or top or bottom to me.. I should have cropped in more on mine maybe.

SlimNinj4 what are you shooting at.

Mine was at 300mm
setup on a tripod with a timer for the shutter to ensure I had minimal vibration from triggering the camera. (as someone else suggested to me I should have done a mirror lockup as well)

I was shooting Iso 100-320
F/5.6 -8.0
and shutter speeds between 1/200 and 1/400

once down to the 1/200 range I had blur..

you need to figure out if blur is from movement or halo starting to be produced from over exposure....etc. I am sure others can tell you more then me. This was only my second go at it. First time was an eclipse.

[Bill Boehme]

I like the second image the best ... the exposure on the first one is just a little too high.

There is no rule of thirds in outer space -- astrophotography is documentary photography and not artistic.

Here are a few suggestions for moon photography:

Of course, use a tripod
Use mirror lock-up ... this makes a huge difference.
If using a zoom lens, do not shoot wide open because most zoom lenses are not at their sharpest at maximum aperture. On my f/2.8 lens, the sharpest images are between f/5.5 and f/8.
Use AF to set the focusing and then turn AF off before shooting.
Use a remote shutter release.
Try shutter speeds from 1/250 sec to 1/400 second (for full moon, I like 1/400), aperture of f/8, and ISO 100.
To get a decent sized image, you ought to have at least 200 mm focal length and 400 mm is much nicer. Tele-converters will decrease the sharpness slightly, but usually not too much.
Try to set up away from lights because they can introduce some flare ... also use the lens hood.

[CameraMan741]

thanks. i was shooting at 300mm, but that night, the moon seemed quite small. i will try some of the suggestions everyone stated above, if i can see the moon from my house.

i did use a tripod. didnt use mirror lock up, but will look into it after this post. i shot at f5.6 for the second one at 1/640 second shutter and the first one i shot at f11 and 1/160 second shutter. i will try the auto focus thing if the moons out tonight. i didnt use a remote shutter since i dont have one, but i did put it on the timer, so it did reduce the shake some. i did have a lens hood on as well, but was next to a lamp, which i will turn off next time.

[CameraMan741]

a little pp on this one. made a looser crop, and positioned it this time. hows this? is the contrast a bit much?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/2775566389_528b20eb84_b.jpg

[thescottandrew]

nice i like the second one best

[aram535]

Unless Nashville gets closer to the moon than New York does, no way those are 300mm shots! :-)

Good thing I just ordered myself a Tamron AF 200-500mm f/5.0-6.3 Di LD SP FEC (IF) Lens. :-) I'll be ready for the next full moon. I just wish my 70-200mm 2.8 had a bit more reach. That 6.3 is going to be the death of me.

[CameraMan741]

its true. 300mm. im quite pleased, but remember these are crops. moon looked really small on the originals, which sort of discouraged me when looking on the LCD, but i continued on shooting. BTW, i thought the moon looked way smaller than normal when i shot these too. lol

[aram535]

Yeah I figured you had them cropped a little closer. You would think being 60 miles away from New York City, having water on both sides I wouldn't get too much light pollution but that's not the case out here. I have to drive another hour east to get a decent "darker" location. After my new lens arrive I might take another trip.

[jimken61]

You have some nice shots here, I like a tighter crop on these myself. Another helpful bit of info is to wait until the moon is directly overhead. You don't have as much distortion from the atomosphere, your looking through in a more direct line. Also shoot in raw so you can get the most info to play with. Here is one of my shots from a while back. I shot this with a 40D, 100-400 with a 2x teleconverter on a tripod with a remote shutter release. F11, 1/250, ISO 400. The other most important thing is to keep having fun!!!
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa205/jimken61/IMG_0844c2.jpg

[Nighthound]

Great work CameraMan. The first two are my choice. Be careful not to over sharpen and loose the smoothness in the noise gain. Also adds a rim line most visible at the top left.

Some great advice here. I would also suggest shooting the Moon higher in the sky whenever possible. I have found the atmosphere to be much more photo friendly in the hours just before dawn, by this time the Earth has released much of the previous day''s heat. Radiational cooling, winds aloft among other things can make critical focus near impossible. Also avoid shooting over rooftops whenever you can in the warm months to avoid distortion.

Well done.

[Lonnie]

Cameraman, those shots are great. What 300mm lens did you use?

[CameraMan741]

thanks everyone. i did try to avoid over sharpening. i do also shoot in RAW.

i used a sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro lens.