Photographing the Moon

[whynotwalk]

Full moon, Sunday May 6th.

On Sunday night I stumbled out to wee the dog, and this is what I saw

I raced inside, got the tripod, camera and long lens (Canon EF 70-300mm L IS) and snapped a few photos. With cropping, sharpening and other tweaking, one or two came out okay. The one above was at 1/160 sec, f5.6, and ISO 100.

Do any of you photo boffins have suggestions for how to improve that kind of shot ... and "use a Nikon" is not the kind of thing I mean

cheers

Peter

[Pteropus]

I'm not an expert but I have found that faster the shutter the better. You get less glare and more detail.

THe photo below is my best moon shot and was also taken on a very cold night in western Queensland back in 2009 with a canon 70 - 300 IS lens (Not L series) with a shutter speed of 1/200, aperture of 5.6 and ISO 100. I can't remember if I used a tripod but I have a reasonably steady hand.

[vagrom]

You can see the spot where the valve pops out!

[Swifty]

Peter, exposure value charts suggest an EI of 14 for a full moon through a long lens (it's brighter than you might expect). At ISO 100, this equates to 1/250 @ f.11. You might want to bracket around this, Pteropus's exposure looks pretty good to me, whereas you've overexposed giving the washed-out look. Set manually as the camera's meter might be fooled by the surrounding darkness. Cheers.
My other non-helpful suggestion: Use Film !!!

[whynotwalk]

Thanks Swifty - very helpful. Now to wait for the next full moon in clear weather!

[Pteropus]

Last night the moon looked particularly bright, so I took a few shots to see how they would turn out. This was my best effort, using a small aperture and faster shutter to cut the glare down. Canon 300 mm zoom at 1/160 sec, f18, ISO =400.

[wayno]

if your camera can change where it samples for its exposure, to a centre focus then it will stop taking an averaged exposure, its compensating for the dark and over exposing the moon, with a centre expsure fous it will ignore the dark and get a better exposure of the moon.
otherwise a filter to reduce glare,,, a polariser might be too strong at night..,, if you have any manual control rduce the exposure time....

[Pteropus]

...otherwise a filter to reduce glare,,, a polariser might be too strong at night..,,

I don't think a filter is necessary BUT it has got me thinking to try the polariser, just to see if it actually has an interesting effect. I found I needed to manually focus too, because my camera is having a harder time focusing in its old age...or so it seems...

[tasadam]

G'day Peter.

I went out the next night and took this one, finally got around to getting it out of the camera...

[Travis22]

This is the only one i have online currently, taken while up at Cape York about 2 months back.

1/250sec, f8 @400mm & ISO100


The best moon photo ive taken so far was in the High Country and ive been lead to believe the additional altitude and cleaner air is the reason for the better images.
That was just before we took of for the Cape York trip (the lens was purchased for the trip; but sadly we didnt see any wild crocs!!)

Travis.

[wildernesswanderer]

Peter, exposure value charts suggest an EI of 14 for a full moon through a long lens (it's brighter than you might expect). At ISO 100, this equates to 1/250 @ f.11. You might want to bracket around this, Pteropus's exposure looks pretty good to me, whereas you've overexposed giving the washed-out look. Set manually as the camera's meter might be fooled by the surrounding darkness. Cheers.
My other non-helpful suggestion: Use Film !!!

This is exactly right, the moon is reflected sunlight, so just as any bright object reflecting light you expose for that.if your using just the standard camera meter it will overexposed the moon shot because of all the black negative space, you need to overexposed your camera by about a stop and a half. Normal moon shots is full moon 1/125 @ f8 ISO 100, I will usually underexpose 1/2 stop as it stops the glow/halo effect some of you have, if you shoot RAW very easy to just bump the exposure back gain.

[Pteropus]

Anyone see the Lunar eclipse last night (15-4-2014)?
I got some pics, from Hobart of all places. Was cloudy most of the day and I had decided there was no chance and not to bother with it (rookie error)...then a few minutes before the moon came up the clouds disappeared and I rushed to my cameras. My tripod was not so sturdy and there was a little movement, but while I am not 100% happy with the images, I think they compare favourably to many I have seen on the internet.

Lunar 6:33

Lunar 6:34

Lunar 6:35

Lunar 6:35

[Pteropus]

Though, I must say I am a little out of practice photographing the moon and could have reviewed this thread before hand and may have had better results.

[photohiker]

Nice shots Pteropus!

I rushed out the door to a local hill and grabbed a few shots as it came over the range. Here in Adelaide, we missed the total eclipse as it ended while the moon was below the horizon.

Never shot the moon before, probably should have searched for info on photographing it!

[Pteropus]

magic shot photohiker! I'm kicking myself for not being prepared and then rushing my shots...

[Pteropus]

I took my own advice on moon photography and did a better job tonight...

[stepbystep]

Nice. I'm too lazy tonight and got a cpl of average ones last night but if you're in Hobart the moonset over Mt wellington in the morning is absolutely beguiling. I lay in bed watching it as the dawn and the mountain swallowed it. Best viewed from the eastern shore.

[Pteropus]

Nice. I'm too lazy tonight and got a cpl of average ones last night but if you're in Hobart the moonset over Mt wellington in the morning is absolutely beguiling. I lay in bed watching it as the dawn and the mountain swallowed it. Best viewed from the eastern shore.

If I could do it by not getting out of bed, I'd do it...lol, but where I am I can't see the mountain. I know from experience that when I have set my alarm to see such things, I will wake and wonder what I was thinking...

Anyway, this last shot was taken with Canon 300 mm at 1/160, f14, ISO 800 and cropped to 995 x 995. I'm quite happy with this one.

[Bushman_Craig]

I like a little moon photography occasionally, the hard way - all manual lens controls and minus a tripod. That way, when the pics don't come out as planned I can blame my equipment

I like to use my birdwatching/whalewatching rig, a Nikon D3200 hung off a vintage, fully-manual Soviet-era TAIR3 telephoto lens with 3 x teleconverter, fitted to a trigger-operated 1970s KGB Photosniper chassis with a collapsible shoulder mount.

Pics uncropped, just resized for the web.


Daytime moon shot through foliage with the previous 2 x teleconverter fitted - a little blurry


Night time moon shot with the current 3 x teleconverter