Tips for shooting the moon

[Bushman]

The moon in the sky, get your minds out of the gutter!

I took some shots of the moon last night,it was full and orange colored. I wasn't real happy with the turn out. I ended up taking about 40 pix, all at different settings because I'd never done any night photos before. What is the best way to shoot the moon?
Phot attached

thanks!

Mike

www.nistudios.com

[Jon]

It's always a bright, sunny day on the moon, so "sunny 16" is the way to go. f/16 at 1/ISO, and adjust according to your lens F.l. and whether you have a tripod. Should be within 1/2 stop or so. If there's atmospheric haze, you'll lose some light and some contrast. Likewise if the moon's near the horizon. In either of those cases, you'll probably want to open up a stop.

[allanc]

When shooting the moon you need to have a shutter speed faster than 1/30 because the moon is actually moving pretty quickly across the sky. Any slower than that and you get blurring from movement of the moon. It also helps to use a long telephoto and a very sturdy tripod.

[jimchapin468]

What lens were you using?

[Bushman]

What lens were you using?

I used the Sigma 50-500mm at about 450mm.

[tim]

Where I am the moon's white. It's also made of cheese, so I wouldn't worry too much ;)

[Jim_T]

It doesn't look too bad to me..

It's not overexposed (which is THE most common error). Nothing is blown out.... You have the exposure right.. It probably could use some contrast/levels/sharpness tweaking. It's hard to tell by your image because you probably used plenty of JPEG compression to get the 1190x1443 pixel image down to the 100K file size limit.. Compression adds artifacts that reduce the quality of an image.. I would have cropped the moon at 800x700 and used less compression.

One thing to note..... The full moon doesn't lend itself to interesting shots because it's being illuminated directly and there are no shadows. This leaves things flat and rather featureless looking. Try again as the moon is in its crescent phases..

[Curtis N]

Isn't it funny how this topic seems to pop up once every 4 weeks or so?;)

A search for thread titles with the word "moon" in them will reveal a wealth of photos, discussions, advice and information.

The moon was particularly bright in my neighborhood last night. Wish I had a really good 600mm lens!

[scr7b]

I read somewhere that the rule of thumb is based on the "sunny 16" rule, but f/11 instead of f/16.

So, f/11 and 1/100 for ISO 100.

[neil_r]

check out

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=87094

N

[summerwind4]

I read somewhere that the rule of thumb is based on the "sunny 16" rule, but f/11 instead of f/16.

So, f/11 and 1/100 for ISO 100.

yes that's a good starting point.
i shot at f/9 1/125th and got great results............any slower shutter speed and your shot won't be as crisp.

[ericgtr]

I tried without success with my 75-300 the other night, I couldn't get a focus on it regardless of exposure.

[allanc]

I tried without success with my 75-300 the other night, I couldn't get a focus on it regardless of exposure.

Use manual focus.

[neil_r]

I had some success with these settings

Lens 100 – 400 L
Extender EF 1.4x II
ISO 100
Speed 1/500s
Ap f/9


see the results here http://www.neil-rice.com/gallery/photo/large/velavaru_may_05_N6H4432_l.jpg

[GyRob]

although the moon is moving, it's the earth's rotation that causes the problem try shooting befor the earth moves ;)
Rob.

[Bushman]

Thanks for all the replies, will try the "sunny 16" rule next time the moon is out

[Nezmo]

I shoot between f/8 and f/11 and 1/100 or faster. Anything slower on the shutter and the moon will blow out or blur due to movement as others have said. Here's a recent shot taken with a 20D, Sigma 70-300mm APO with Tamron 1.4x TC, F/8, 1/100s.

http://www.pbase.com/nezmo/image/46343678

(I would inline but I haven't figured-out how to do that yet).

[glenhead]

Speaking of the moon, for those of y'all (like me) who are old enough to remember hearing Neil Armstrong say, live, "That's one small step...", the 36th anniversary was 20 July.

Google has a commemorative site up that shows the locations of all the landings, and the pictures are pretty amazing in their detail (NASA photos). Be sure to zoom all the way in to see what kind of detail is available without atmospheric distortion.

go to http://moon.google.com

[gramps]

although the moon is moving, it's the earth's rotation that causes the problem try shooting befor the earth moves ;)
Rob.


best advise so far...........

[cerveza4lu]

Beautiful shot Nezmo! I really like the fact that its only a 3/4 moon.

[Nezmo]

Thanks...

[mjordan]

Don't forget to use a fstop that will give you a depth of field that will cover from about... oh, 150,000 miles to 240,000 miles. That should get everthing in focus between those two points.


;) :D :D

Mike

[cerveza4lu]

I think my 75-300 might be front-focussing. It seems to settle out to 116,000 miles when I know I was focussed on 160,000 ;)

[pierrot]

Don't forget to use a fstop that will give you a depth of field that will cover from about... oh, 150,000 miles to 240,000 miles. That should get everthing in focus between those two points.
Ah, I wish I got a DoF scale on my nifty fifty... :roll: