Moonlit night with photo, Corrected thread

[Sony-A390]

Just wondering what the blue circle is.
I posted a thread like this yesterday but forgot to send picture !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Donald]

Just looks like flare to me.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Wayne,

Just looks like flare to me.

I agree with Donald.

This is perhaps one of the few occasions where removal of a UV filter (just to take the shot) might be wise, that said;
you might have had one fitted, or
it might have made no difference.

Cheers,

[revi]

Given the placement of highlight and flare spot, could it be reflection on the sensor?

[Sony-A390]

No filter taken for this shot, Might be just one of them things.

[Donald]

Might be just one of them things.

Wayne

I would say that is the best analysis that anyone's going to come up with. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don't. I don't think it gets any more technical than that.

[FrankMi]

Hi Wayne, fortunately, in a situation like this, it is not difficult to correct in post processing. I hope you don't mind that a took a crack at cloning out the flare.

[Sony-A390]

Well done Frank it certanly has removed the flare.

[dubeni]

Hello! I hope I'm not intruding
but I have a similar problem with moon shots
In my case I think is an inner lens reflection due to excessive brightness of the moon,


Canon EOS 350D
Date/Time: 17-07-2008 20:43:30
Tv: 0.5
Av: 4.5
ISO: 400
Lens: 90.0 - 300.0mm
FL: 90.0mm
Noise reduction Off
Mirror Lockup Off

This happens to me on a lot of different shots that include a bright moon.
I even tried on a half eclipsed moon with mirror Lockup and covering the viewfinder (something that the camera manual suggests when using self timer)
With the full eclipsed moon this didn't happen.


Canon EOS 350D
Date/Time: 21-02-2008 04:19:18
Tv: 2.5
Av: 5.6
ISO: 800
Lens: 90.0 - 300.0mm
FL: 300.0mm
Noise reduction On
Mirror Lockup On

As you can see it still shows a shadowed flare, and curiously the reflection appears to be inverted, that's why I think it is a lens reflection...

Is it possible to avoid this?

Again I apologize for intruding on your post and sharing my doubts Sony-A390.

Bernardo

[Jim B.]

Hi Bernardo,

I can't comment on the reflection,but I have some tips for you on shooting the moon.Try these settings:
Set lens to f/11
ISO 100
Mirror lockup
Noise reduction-off
2 second timer
Metering-Center weighted
White balance-daylight
You might have to dial in some exposure compensation,but this should give good results.
Regards,
Jim

[dubeni]

Thank you Jim B.
Next time I will try those settings.

[Sony-A390]

I dont think that the Sony-A390 has mirror lockup.

[Sony-A390]

Not a problem, The more the better that way I get more ideas to solve the problem.
It could be an issue that a lot of people have.

[dubeni]

I dont think that the Sony-A390 has mirror lockup.

Don't worry, mirror Lockup is only useful when doing long exposure to avoid camera shake, and I think the A390 features a built in sensor shift image stabilization.

[FrankMi]

Hi Bernardo, moonlight, particularly in a full moon is reflected sunlight so it is almost as bright as a sunlit day. The lower the moon is in the sky, the more of earth's atmosphere the moonlight passes through to get to the camera so it looses some of the sunlight intensity but it is still much brighter than you would expect for an object in the night sky.

[krispix]

Hi Guys,
Going back to the beginning of this thread. The flare is most definitely internal reflection and is almost predictable given the slight offset angle of the moon to the lens plane. There's not a great deal you can do about this at the time of shooting; removing any filters may help and a smaller aperture will reduce the size, but almost certainly increase the intensity. Fortunately, modern software allows us to deal with these things in the digital darkroom.
As for shooting the moon, you should bear in mind that the camera's metering system is trying very hard to reduce everything to an nice even 50% grey. When you point it to the night sky it will expose as much as it can to make the sky grey. If you spot-meter on the moon itself, you will get a much more realistic exposure reading. Even Jim's idea of 2-seconds @ f11 may be too much, but it's a good starting point. It all depends on where the moon is in the night sky. Best thing to do is bracket like crazy

[Jim B.]

I meant use the 2 second timer delay on the camera to reduce vibration.The exposure will be under a second with the ISO and aperture settings I gave.Bracketing is a good tip also.
The moon was pretty high above the horizon in this shot so atmosphere was not an issue.


560mm ISO 100 f/11 1/15"

[krispix]

Thanks for clearing that one up Jim. 2 seconds sounded a bit excessive to me, but it's not a subject I shoot that often, so I wasn't about to make a fuss about it. Most people do massively overexpose shots of the moon for the reason I gave, and lose all the great detail.
I have in my mind a composite shot which will include the moon in the last quarter in that golden hour after sunset. But, it is sooooooo difficult to get it with the right colour in the sky, when it's not obscured by clouds, raining, snowing etc. etc.

[dubeni]

As for shooting the moon, you should bear in mind that the camera's metering system is trying very hard to reduce everything to an nice even 50% grey. When you point it to the night sky it will expose as much as it can to make the sky grey. If you spot-meter on the moon itself, you will get a much more realistic exposure reading. Even Jim's idea of 2-seconds @ f11 may be too much, but it's a good starting point. It all depends on where the moon is in the night sky. Best thing to do is bracket like crazy

Thank you Chris and Jim for clarifying the 2", I though it might be a bit to long from my experiences with the moon.
What do you guys mean by bracketing?

[Jim B.]

I've not done much with bracketing shots.When I have I used AEB(auto exposure bracketing).I believe the 350D has this capability.
An example:
You can set the camera up to take 3 bracketed shots.
-1, 0 ,+1
This is the way I used it:
Set the camera to continuous shooting and use 2 second timer.After you press the shutter button and the timer runs down the camera will take the 3 shots using the values you set.
Explaination is more involved and and there are variations to how it can be done.I'm not the best at instruction.If you have the manual for you camera,AEB operation is explained in it.
I'm sure someone with better communication skills will drop by and add to this.