How to photograph the moon?

[CNelson]

I've done a few night moon shots with some success. The key is to remember you are shooting and object in full sun so, for all intents and purposes, the exposure would be close to the same as you would for shooting a scene in direct sunlight. If you use the camera's meter, it will try to compute the difference between a black sky and a bright moon and give you a blown out moon. If you want to include foreground in the same shot a graduated ND filter may help but I would probably opt to shoot the foreground with one exposure and the moon with another and place the moon in the forground picture. Below is an evening shot with the moon rolling up the side of Mt. Shasta. Both the mountain and the moon are in direct sunlight so I could capture both with one shot but the moon is slightyly blown out because it's in direct sunlight and the mountain is in evening sun filtered through a lot of earth's atmosphere. I'd love to get another go at this shot...only happens once a year.

Chuck

[ScoutR]

Very nice shot, Thanks for posting. Good idea getting the moon before the sun goes down. I always seem to be at work when I notice those conditions. I think it might be the only way I get a nice landscape with the moon though.

Once a year, now that is a planned shot. So many things that could go wrong. The photog Gods must have been with you for this one.

[Shadowman]

Forgot I even shot this last year. Not a very good photo but one of my first attempts at low light photography.

[ScoutR]

Hey Shadowman, not bad for a first try (darn streetlights! they are always in the way). What say we both get out before March, see what we get and post them here. Anyone else is welcome also, as already mentioned, not a competion though.

[Ashwin]

What say we both get out before March, see what we get and post them here. Anyone else is welcome also, as already mentioned, not a competion though.

Wish Good luck to " MISSION MOON EXPEDITION "
Hope to see your MOON Photographs soonest possible

[Shadowman]

Hey Shadowman, not bad for a first try (darn streetlights! they are always in the way). What say we both get out before March, see what we get and post them here. Anyone else is welcome also, as already mentioned, not a competion though.

Wendy,

That's a plan and I do have to change my vantage point to eliminate those street lamps. And a tripod is a must for this type of photography.

[ScoutR]

Wish Good luck to " MISSION MOON EXPEDITION "
Hope to see your MOON Photographs soonest possible

And yours too ashwin.

[Ashwin]

And yours too ashwin.

Hi Wendy,

After associating myself with this site. I am now seriously thinking to re-start Photography, and surely then I will regularly Post my work here

[Shadowman]

Quick chance at photographing the moon. Within five minutes a fog bank rolled in and cut short my attempts.
Shot with Nikon D60
7-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G IF ED lens
shutter speed 1/160 seconds
aperture 5.6
ISO 800

[ScoutR]

Quick chance at photographing the moon. Within five minutes a fog bank rolled in and cut short my attempts.
Shot with Nikon D60
7-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G IF ED lens
shutter speed about 30 seconds
aperture 5.6
ISO 800

Hey Shadowman, glad to see you keeping the thread alive. This one does not look to bad. Is the halo from PP or did it actually look like that.

I had good intentions, but the one night I could try for the full moon was cloudy and no moon in sight.

I did do a couple practice shots Feb 21. I'm really surprised at the settings you used for these shots. I was shooting the half moon (or thereabouts) and at 1/4s f5.6 ISO 200 the highlights were mostly blown. There was a tiny bit of detail but not much. Were you using some kind of filter?
Anyway, I will have something one of these days (work and weather permitting) We can watch each other improve

Did anyone else shoot the full moon this month?

[Jim B.]

Wendy,
EXIF says 1/160".30 seconds would have been way too long to get this result.Nice shot Shadowman.

[Dave Humphries]

I agree, dunno where the 30 seconds came from , everything else stated is correct.

Program AE, Multi-segment metered with a -2 stop EC applied.

AF success at 21m (!) is another odd thing I spotted, I haven't put the figures in a DoF calculator, but that seems a little close. (assuming it is metres and not miles )

My EXIF look up;
http://regex.info/exif.cgi?url=http%...hmentid%3D3061

[ScoutR]

Wendy,
EXIF says 1/160".30 seconds would have been way too long to get this result.Nice shot Shadowman.

Ooops, I forgot to double check with KUSO. It makes sense now.

[ScoutR]

You have to start somewhere though. Just did a quick resize with LR and I notice EXIF is there. Let me know if you all see anything that I should adjust. I think this might have worked with a stop or so minus EC???? maybe?
Large crop and pretty small, if I get anything better I'll post bigger.



Nikon D3000: 18-200mm: 1/4s: f5.6: ISO 200: 200mm: Spot metered: focus: infinity

[James G]

Interesting thread,
I used to be mad keen on astronomy until I became a city lad. About the only thing I see in the sky from Birmingham at night is the moon.

Got interested in shooting it a while back and have bee experimenting on clear frosty nights over the last few months.

I used a 500 mm telephoto on a a canon eos 45D and shot this at 1/640th second, F8, iso 100, with cable release and the mirror locked up, tripod mounted.
Oh yes and spot metered. Found that a range of exposures from about 1000th through to 250th second all gave usable results. Still not satisfied with sharpness though.



James

[ScoutR]

Looks very good James. Thanks for sharing the shooting info and tips. Next full moon here is Mar. 29, I hope it's not cloudy this time. I think with my 200mm I might have to wait till the low hanging harvest moon next fall to get anything decent, but I'll keep practicing till then.

[Shadowman]

Hi Wendy,

I think the halo is from camera movement. I had the camera mounted on a tripod but it was a bit windy on the top porch where I was shooting from. I didn't use a filter, I set the white balance to daylight.

I really need to try this when the moon is just rising above the horizon, but living in the city with all the tall structures surrounding me makes that a little difficult. Last week I had a very clear shot of the crescent moon but it was positioned directly overhead and I was shooting at a 90 degree angle. I tried long exposures but had difficulty focusing the shot because my D60 doesn't have live view on the monitor. All of the shots came out blurry. I eventually went to a hand held, fast exposure and was able to get a few clear shots but the weight of the lens caused some camera shake. It's too bad we have limited time to try our hands at these types of shots. Good luck on your attempts.

Hey Shadowman, glad to see you keeping the thread alive. This one does not look to bad. Is the halo from PP or did it actually look like that.

I had good intentions, but the one night I could try for the full moon was cloudy and no moon in sight.

I did do a couple practice shots Feb 21. I'm really surprised at the settings you used for these shots. I was shooting the half moon (or thereabouts) and at 1/4s f5.6 ISO 200 the highlights were mostly blown. There was a tiny bit of detail but not much. Were you using some kind of filter?
Anyway, I will have something one of these days (work and weather permitting) We can watch each other improve

Did anyone else shoot the full moon this month?

[Shadowman]

Thanks Jim.

Wendy,
EXIF says 1/160".30 seconds would have been way too long to get this result.Nice shot Shadowman.

[Shadowman]

James,

Looks good, how much was this photo cropped? Mine was photographed with a 300mm lens and I probably removed about 1/3 of the surrounding space.

[Shadowman]

Wendy,

Nice attempt, when I used a long exposure I got a lot of blown highlights.