How can I improve on my Moon shots?

[Lee123]

Hey guys
I have taken a few shots of the moon, but I have yet to take a shot that am happy with.
I am using my ETX90 on a Giottos tripod (seems more stable than the telescope mount) with my 40D. I do the usual mirror up, cable release etc, but do you guys have any other suggestions that might help me take a better, sharper image or am I asking too much with my current setup?

Thanks for any input.

Here's my latest attempt.

[Dusty]

Lee, what are the exif details on this shot?

[Lee123]

Hey Dusty
I just pulled the exif, ISO-250, SS-1/60.

[Dusty]

Try ISO 100 and 1/200th exp and if you haven't already, use live preview to get focus spot on.
The moon is reflecting sunlight so it's quite bright so lower ISO is the go.

Good luck and just experiment with exposure to get it just right.
Also shoot in RAW and sharpen at the end just a little.

:D

[mbscad]

Hi Lee,
I don't think that there is too much wrong with you photo or settings.
I suspect that your focus may be a little off (but you can check that with live view magnified). I think the real problem may be the atmospheric conditions (or seeing as it's called). As the moon rises higher in the sky it has less air to go through to reach the ground and consequently there is less refraction and distortion. So try a photo when the moon is getting high in the sky and compare your results. Some nights it will be impossible to get that crisp shot that you are after. That's why people take videos of the moon (thousands of frames) and stack only the best ones as the "seeing" is constantly changing.
HTH

[Lee123]

Thanks guys. I'll definitely try your suggestions. Will let you know how I get on.

[Lee123]

Well, I gave it a shot...managed to get the SS up to 1/160, I also used live view and zoomed in to try and get a better focus.

Do you think the focus is still off a little?

[mbscad]

Hi Lee,
that's a cracking shot of the nearly full moon. The focus looks good to me with good crater definition up at top left. Exposure looks much better too. The full moon is probably the most difficult shot to get right and it usually looks flat because you don't have the shadow definition along the terminator. There's some colour showing through here too, you could try and bring it out by increasing colour saturation (I'm not suggesting that it will add anything to your photo but you might like to try it on your monitor).

[dpastern]

Well, I managed a 1/400, ISO 400 shot a few nights ago, at about the same time as you have taken this shot. That's 1/200 @ ISO 200. I personally think the moon is a bit overexposed, but it does show the rays from Tycho nicely. Interestingly (and I'm not sure why), it seems sharper at the terminator than on the main part of the disk.

Much better effort than the first shot (which wasn't bad imho).

Dave

[Lee123]

Thanks guys.
I had the same thoughts. Everything looks great around the terminator, but things seem to go down hill as you move away from it. I did take a few with a slightly lower exposure, but I started to lose a great deal of definition and bring some detail back in PP introduced noise. I would love to use a moon filter, but I cannot find one that allows me to use prime focus :cry:.

Thanks again for your input. I'm getting there slowly, but surely.

[Bernoulli]

Lee -

I've taken a lot of Moon shots - they don't get much better than that second one of yours. The focus is spot on all across the disk. Remember, the focus always looks better near the terminator because of the shadows. But there are a few features across the fully-illuminated disk that can be used to check focus all over, and your focus is great.

Likewise the exposure. There are really no problems with this image.

Now, you could spend some time in PP learning how to bring out more detail without it looking garish, and this is a fine image for PP work. I took the liberty of working on it. But you have the imaging thing down if you can do this every time.

[Lee123]

Oh WOW...Thanks Bernoulli. :D.

Can I ask what you did to get that result? Looks great...

[Bernoulli]

All done in Photoshop CS4, and I assume you know how to use that at least a little.

Looking at "Levels", your exposure is perfect. Fills the span almost completely.

So I did three things: used curves to increase contrast, did a little sharpening, and a little saturation. "Little" and "slight amounts at a time" are key.

First to curves, if you know how to use these, darken your darks just a little and brighten your brights just a little. Pull down on the curve on the left and up on the right, but not much.

For sharpening: use 150% (maybe 200%) at 1.0 pixel radius and 0 threshold levels. The details will pop out. Toggle on the "preview" and you'll see the difference clearly.

Then I gave it just a tiny amount of saturation, about 25 or 30.

Then you have a great image with some degree of punch on both details and tonality.

[Lee123]

Thanks :D I'll give that a try.

[Lee123]

Wow...I can't even get close to your edit. I'll keep trying though...

[Bernoulli]

Takes lots of practice. PP is the fun part for me, and I'll keep RAW images for months so I can play with them on cloudy nights. I usually pour a scotch, turn on the TV, and just mess around with the images to see what new things I can find. It sure beats work!

[Lee123]

Ok...I think I got close. How did I do?

[Bernoulli]

That looks great. You probably saw my thread on here from last night, we were probably imaging at the same time.

If you saturate too much more you'll get complaints. What you have is very tasteful, IMHO. And, if you sharpen much more, you'll get sharpening artifacts. There are so many PP things you can do with the Moon.

You can't do anything without an excellent starting image, and you've got that.

[Lee123]

That looks great. You probably saw my thread on here from last night, we were probably imaging at the same time.

If you saturate too much more you'll get complaints. What you have is very tasteful, IMHO. And, if you sharpen much more, you'll get sharpening artifacts. There are so many PP things you can do with the Moon.

You can't do anything without an excellent starting image, and you've got that.


Thanks :D. Couldn't have done it without your help.

[Dusty]

In my opinion these colour saturated repro's detract from the true look and beauty of the moon.
I prefer to keep a more natural look and just boost the contrast and sharpness of moon shots a little to enhance subtle detail.
Saturating the colours to the point where they don't look natural or accurate detracts from the final image of the moon IMO.

I've taken the liberty to show what I mean in this re-pro of your original image Lee, hope you don't mind.

I've brought back the colour levels to a more neutral level, boosted detail slightly using "Shadow/Highlights" and applied a little Noise Reduction.

It's not perfect, working off a low jpg copy means loss of detail but I just wanted to show you what I prefer to do with moon images.

Cheers

[Lee123]

Not at all Dusty. The moon is made up of colorful minerals (not that they are visible), but I really do love both looks. I had the same idea and added both to my website.
The natural look definitely allows more detail to shine through :D.

[Dusty]

Cheers Lee, don't get me wrong, when done right, the saturated colour shots do look good, but they need to be done with very sharply captured shots or else the final result is not pleasing.

You've done well and with practice you will get fantastic results.
The moon is a difficult object to image properly and the only way to improve is to practice and learn from each other.

:D

[dpastern]

I also personally agree with Dusty - I look at it from the viewpoint that the moon looks nothing like the enhanced colours to the natural eye. I still like the shots though :-)

Dave

[acousticvibrations]

i cant believe you shot this w/ a 200mm! wow

[BIGTUFFGUY]

Where the greater crop and more megapixels shine!
I tried a moon shot with my cam and didn't get quite the same result. your second image is a keeper and as we have seen with a little PS work its worth of being printed and hung up.

[acousticvibrations]

file:///E:/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_1213.JPGthese were some practice shots tonight.


i was using xsi, 70-300mm is, tripod, wireless remote.

[acousticvibrations]

2nd set

iso 1600
1/500
f 5.6


im going try on the next full moon.