Taking shots at night or almost night?!!!!!

[FlikChick]

So I've been messing with night shots, and evening shots with the sky turning colors. But sometimes the moon looks sooooo beautiful! I feel like a dope when I try to get a moon shots but it looks like the size of a spec in the actual picture. I have a canon 40d, a 50mm1.8,17-85mm4-5.6\

I used the 17-85 but it still wont do. The moon looks HUGE but its so itty bitty in my pictures...= ( What are the correct lenses for this? And if they're expensive, would you recommend an alternative possibly equal to that lens thats cheaper please? = ) thank you

oh and also, I've seen people use gels to make the photo color more saturated or whatnot. For when the sky is turning darkish and theres blues and purple lights and some amber light from the sun going down being reflected is that a good idea? I want my photos to be as clear as possible,and do I use a flash? I have the 430exii

[siddr20]

You would deff need a long zoom lens. Something around 200mm or so?

Never done any moon shots as i dont have the lens for it, but you would need something from 100mm upwards deff.

[texasreddirt]

Its going to need to be more than 200mm. Even at 300mm its not that close

[Joergeske]

Personally I struggle to get the detail I want even with a 300 and 1.4x Tc. The moon is though, I suggest not chasing the perfect moon shot. I found myself rationalizing a Bigma last year only to find that I rarely used it aside from on a full moon. If you want a cheap way to get good moon shots then try finding a spotting scope you can adapt to, or buy a cheap tamron or sigma 70-300 they are very inexpensive and can be extremely useful.

[FlikChick]

gotchya

[SlowBlink]

300mm with a 2x TC and cropping till it hurts. :)

[Adrena1in]

I tend to use my 1200mm telescope for the moon, and it frames it nicely. 600mm is okay, and 400mm not too bad if there are other things in the frame, like trees or landscapes or even some other celestial objects, otherwise the moon's just a bit too small.

As for using a flash, I don't think there's any point unless you want to illuminate something close.

[GlobexCo]

I want my photos to be as clear as possible,and do I use a flash? I have the 430exii

Our fancy external flashes can't illuminate something 200 feet away; how well will they fare on something over 200,000 miles away? ;)

[Sorarse]

Are you trying to take a photo of just the moon, or of the sky in general but just want the moon to be a bit more prominent?

If the former, I have managed to get reasonable moon photos with a 500mm on a 1.6x body (gives a focal equivalent of 800mm).

If the latter I wouldn't think you would want to go much above 200mm or you will start losing out on how much sky you can capture.

[SlowBlink]

Our fancy external flashes can't illuminate something 200 feet away; how well will they fare on something over 200,000 miles away? ;)

Drag the shutter? :)