Caution: Noob Thinking On Taking Photo Of The Moon

[erainn]

I would like to present my flawed and partial knowledge on basic photographic technique in the hope that someone can gently correct my understanding on the subject of taking photographs of the Moon.

Now I'm talking 50mm lens, Canon EOS 450d so nothing fancy, anyway let's get to it...

I saw a photo of the Moon recently, take by a friend, who uses a 300 mm zoom and the thing I noticed was the detail of the surface. This impressed me because a couple nights previous I had taken a shot of a full Moon and while the image was clear the surface was just an intense and plain white.

Now this is when I parade my thinking on the matter, apologies to seasoned Photographers who may start wincing So I thought to get such a sharp image showing the Moon's surface I would need to make some specific settings changes, sure I would not get the magnification but perhaps at least show some variation in contrast, color of the Lunar surface.

How to achieve that, well to my mind I was wondering the Moon moves at a fair rate of speed so a fast-shutter speed may be needed, to minimize a blurred image, along with a tripod. Next I was thinking about the aperture, being a full/nearly full Moon there's a considerable amount of light so what aperture setting?

So I had read that higher aperture gives greater sharpness, so on that understanding I thought a setting around 18/20 as an experiment would do the trick to bring out the surface features. But hang on if I used a higher aperture I had read that less light would enter the camera, and given I was already pondering using a fast shutter speed to get around blur cause by the Moon's motion the combination would result in underexposure.

Clearly I was on trail of finding some sort of balance, but what could that be? Then this equation needed to take account of 'focus' having read a couple of internet posts I'd understood that the camera needed to be set on 'infinity' on 'manual focus'. How so?

It can be a tough life for the noob photographer, so many considerations, technical factors, and calculations that can seem overwhelming, so if anyone has tips, tricks and guidance on taking Moon photos with a regular camera and 50 mm lens I would really appreciate hearing from you

Erainn

[dubaiphil]

The biggest thing to understand here is that the moon is reflecting sunlight. Therefore you need shutter speeds approaching that of daylight to capture the detail on the moon's surface that you're looking for.

As for apertures, that not really relevant if you're just after the moon against a featureless sky. Aim for something in the sweetspot rancge of your lens - e.g. f4 to f11.

ISO wants to be as low as possible for best IQ.

So why not try something like f8, 1/500th, ISO200 as a starter and see how it goes. The beauty of digital leams you can trial different settings and see instant results so you can dial in a better exposure if required

[Donald]

How to achieve that, well to my mind I was wondering the Moon moves at a fair rate of speed

The moon moves through its diameter in 2 minutes. So, in two minutes time the left edge will be where the right edge is now (if you're in the northern hemisphere).

For that you don't need a particularly fast shutter. But what you do need to do is expose for the moon. That means getting the combination of shutter and aperture correct. That will mean that with a 50mm lens, everything else around is going to be blacked out. The moon is a very bright thing. The actual shutter speed, or the actual aperture is not the main question. It's the two together, working in harmony, so that the exposure is right for the surface of the moon.

If you want the surface to have detail AND you want the landscape around to be visible and not blacked out, then you need a tripod. Capture 2 photos (one exposed for the moon and one for the surrounding landscape) and blend them. You need to do this fairly quickly, before the moon moves too far through from the position it was in when you fired the first frame. So, you need to know what settings you're going to use beforehand (having practiced) and go for it.

You can see my effort at blending two images, here.

[Stagecoach]

Erainn, I have just posted a shot in another thread taken at f/8, 1/80s ISO 200 and asking a technical question about best exposure to use but one thing to realise is that the moons brightness varies by the day so very much trial and error. If you can use the blinkies on the camera take a few different exposures up until you reach the point where you see blinkies.

MOD EDIT - This is the link to Grahame's image - The Moon at 390mm

[IzzieK]

I may be wrong here because the moon shots exampled here by our mod and that of Grahame are beautifully done, but for a similar noob, what I do is a little shortcut of changing your mode to P or automatic setting, take note of the shutter speed and aperture after you have dialed in your ISO, then shift back to manual mode using those settings then working/dialing your aperture and shutter speed from there until you see your EV goes to the middle. From there you can make your image go lighter or darker...watch your blinkies or your histogram (if you understand histogram at this point that is...) or your highlights...

'Hope this helps...I only discovered these settings very recently when I was having a hard time trying to work my settings...

[Tringa]

Many phases of the moon are very bright but even with a medium telephoto lens (and much more so with a 50mm lens) it will be a very small bright object in a very large completely black field of view.

This will confuse the camera's meter, so as already suggested the best method for moon shots is trial and error.

Setting you lens to infinity will probably work but using live view and manual focus is also a good way of getting it right.

Although a full moon is a tempting subject, the shadows are much better just after new moon and at first and last quarter.

Dave

[Shadowman]

I may be wrong here because the moon shots exampled here by our mod and that of Grahame are beautifully done, but for a similar noob, what I do is a little shortcut of changing your mode to P or automatic setting, take note of the shutter speed and aperture after you have dialed in your ISO, then shift back to manual mode using those settings then working/dialing your aperture and shutter speed from there until you see your EV goes to the middle. From there you can make your image go lighter or darker...watch your blinkies or your histogram (if you understand histogram at this point that is...) or your highlights...

'Hope this helps...I only discovered these settings very recently when I was having a hard time trying to work my settings...

Seems plausible.

[Shadowman]

My settings will vary but I don't think I've ever tried exposing with aperture higher than f/16, things start to get crazy with smaller apertures.

[DanK]

I don't do too much of this, but I think this:

a little shortcut of changing your mode to P or automatic setting, take note of the shutter speed and aperture after you have dialed in your ISO, then shift back to manual mode using those settings then working/dialing your aperture and shutter speed from there until you see your EV goes to the middle.

can be simplified. The camera's meter is going to provide the same information regardless of setting, so you don't gain any more information by switching to P mode. For example, you can set the camera in manual mode, set the ISO and aperture where you want, and then change the shutter speed until the camera's meter gives you a neutral rating. I think this should give you the same result as the procedure above. Then take a shot and check the blinkies, etc. to modify as needed.

I think the bigger problem is metering. When shooting the moon, everything else is going to be much darker, except at moonrise and moonset for full moons, which will be around sunset and sunrise. That means that anything other than spot metering on the moon itself is likely to give you substantial overexposure.

So, my starting point would be a low ISO, as wide an aperture as that particular lens can handle without beginning to soften (to keep the shutter speed high), and spot metering off the moon. If you are using manual mode, you can easily meter off the moon and then reposition, since the camera will not change any settings when you do that. Then adjust from there.

[rachel]

I'm relatively inexperienced with photography techniques but have been taking photos of the moon for years with a compact (Fujifilm F80). ISO as low as possible, and either P setting with darkest exposure, or M setting with a fast speed. I find the P setting easier.

Zooming in on the moon as far as possible helps because the bright moon fills more of the screen so the camera auto-adjusts better (is this metering?).

Also, as DanK says above, taking photos of the moon before dark or after dawn helps because you can keep some light in the rest of the image.

I'm now experimenting with a fancier camera, but do pretty much the same. The difference is in the sharpness of the image.

These are with the compact

[IzzieK]

Very nice, Rachel....

Someone from this forum posted these links....

Moon Calculator:
http://www.openphotographicsociety.o...ure-calculator

Digital Camera Settings for Astrophotography:
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/SETTINGS.HTM

[rachel]

Ooh, that's interesting, thanks. I use this for times and phases but it doesn't have camera settings on it.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/sunmooncalc/

My newest camera is a Nikon D5300 and so far I don't have a big enough zoom lens to get crystal clear photos. In between I bought a fujifilm HS30 and that gets nice definition of the moon in close-up. I will have a play with both using the suggsted settings on yout link.

[Shadowman]

I'm relatively inexperienced with photography techniques but have been taking photos of the moon for years with a compact (Fujifilm F80). ISO as low as possible, and either P setting with darkest exposure, or M setting with a fast speed. I find the P setting easier.

Zooming in on the moon as far as possible helps because the bright moon fills more of the screen so the camera auto-adjusts better (is this metering?).

Also, as DanK says above, taking photos of the moon before dark or after dawn helps because you can keep some light in the rest of the image.

I'm now experimenting with a fancier camera, but do pretty much the same. The difference is in the sharpness of the image.

These are with the compact

Nice set.

[erainn]

Thanks you so very much to everyone who replied to my post on this issue, your advice, knowledge and technical suggestions are very much appreciated. Shall be taking time to go through the various ideas and methods and hope to improve my Moon shots

[HaseebM]

Play with your settings till you achieve what you want. Good thing about the Moon is its not going to go away for another several billion years. I started out and learnt it is not difficult. Just need to keep at it. I use manual settings and ISO between 200 - 400 at 1/60 to 1/80th.