Moon Shots....??

[tjrenegade]

I been seeing all these great shots of the Moon posted here and Itried it myslef this morning and al I got was a moon shaped blob....n

I am using a 400D on a trip pod with the 70-300 Zoom EF IS Lens set at 300mm I am setting the exposure to what the meter reads....the image looks crisp in the view finder but when I snap the shot ( using the timer) I get this...

What am I doing wrong...I figure its my exposure its too long

[Dusty]

Exposure is too long, also reduce your ISO below 800 and use mirror lockup.

[Woolburr]

Way over-exposed....try this....1/350 second f/5.6 at ISO 100...use a tripod, remote and mirror lock up...adjust your settings from there.

[tjrenegade]

Ok thanks thats what I figured....how does mirror lock up work?? I know how to enable it on the camera but whats actualy happening...how do I use it? Thanks

[Dusty]

Found one I did a few months ago.
The Moon with Mercury on the right of it and Jupiter on the far bottom right and Jupiter's moons around it.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by tjrenegade

Ok thanks thats what I figured....how does mirror lock up work?? I know how to enable it on the camera but whats actualy happening...how do I use it? Thanks

When it's enabled it will lift the mirror with the first press but will not fire the shutter, then with the second press it will expose the shot thus any vibration from the mirror would have died down and not affect the actual shot.
This of course means you have to press the shutter (cable release) twice.

[Woolburr]

Once you engage the mirror lock-up function, the mirror will swing up out of the way when you first press the shutter button completely. Give the camera a second to stop vibrating...and press again...now only the shutter moves...much less vibration.

[tweatherred]

This is a classic situation where your camera meter is fooled. It has been described many times before in this forum, but for those who haven't seen it yet, the principle behind moon shots is that the moon is fully lit by the sun, and therefore can be exposed by the "sunny 16" rule-exposure 1/ISO at f/16 (or an equivalent exposure). Why doesn't your camera's meter read this? Because the moon is surrounded by nearly black sky that is averaged in. This will happen even with a 1 degree spot meter, as the moon is about 1/2 degree of arc in angular size (or 30 min of arc if you prefer).

I am really intrigued by Dusty's picture. It almost looks as if it was exposed for the dark portion of a crescent moon. Otherwise how do you get that bright crescent on the lower portion of the moon and expose the sky light enough to see stars? That is really a nice shot, however it was accomplished.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by tweatherred

I am really intrigued by Dusty's picture. It almost looks as if it was exposed for the dark portion of a crescent moon. Otherwise how do you get that bright crescent on the lower portion of the moon and expose the sky light enough to see stars? That is really a nice shot, however it was accomplished.

Thank you.

It was taken when the moon was a very thin crescent so only a small part of it is over exposed. The rest of it is lit up by what's called earth shine which is sun light reflected back to the moon from our earth and lighting up the dark portion of the moon.

Oh I forgot to mention it was taken at dusk so the sky was a deep deep blue. Then it was a matter of working in manual mode to get the exposure right using a wide apperture.

[tjrenegade]

OK I think I get it! Thanks for the explanation..Dusty awsome shot....

[Scunner]

Dusty,

That really is a beautiful shot. Do you have a larger version online? I'd love to see more detail of the moon and Jupiter.

[stupot]

incredible shot dusty, i was also wondering about the crescent and immediatly though photoshop was used. can you see that effect with the naked eye? i don't think i've ever seen it before.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Scunner

Dusty,

That really is a beautiful shot. Do you have a larger version online? I'd love to see more detail of the moon and Jupiter.

I'll see what I can do, glad you liked it.
Thank you.

Originally Posted by stupot

incredible shot dusty, i was also wondering about the crescent and immediatly though photoshop was used. can you see that effect with the naked eye? i don't think i've ever seen it before.

Our eyes are much more sensitive and can handle a wider dynamic range than any camera.
But at night or low light levels our eyes are not very efficient so it doesn't look as dramatic (that's also why we can't see much colour visually through a telescope).

But the camera can capture this detail (in a long exposure) and we can reveal it to a point using software like PS.

I simply adjusted the levels to bring out the detail.

Glad you liked it, thank you.

[tweatherred]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Thank you.

It was taken when the moon was a very thin crescent so only a small part of it is over exposed. The rest of it is lit up by what's called earth shine which is sun light reflected back to the moon from our earth and lighting up the dark portion of the moon.

Oh I forgot to mention it was taken at dusk so the sky was a deep deep blue. Then it was a matter of working in manual mode to get the exposure right using a wide apperture.

Thanks for the explanation. I thought it was somthing like that; another clue that it was close to either sunrise or sunset is the fact that Mercury is seen. I had no idea you could get the earth-lit moon to show up so well; now I have something to try.

[StewartR]

Originally Posted by tweatherred

I had no idea you could get the earth-lit moon to show up so well; now I have something to try.

There's a good example of it here.