The Moon at 390mm

[Stagecoach]

Had a chance tonight to shoot the moon between the light cloud with the 80-400mm.

Took shots at a few different apertures as I do not know the sweet spot of this lens yet but then came across the problem of deciding which one to PP. Basically I had about 4 shots at different exposures (at each aperture) that looked good before any clipping. So my question would be do the experts at this choose the one 'closest' before clipping or exposed less?

Anyway, here's the result of the one I chose.

1/80s, f/8, ISO200, 390mm


I did not notice any stars other than one in its vicinity when I shot it but that's no doubt my eyesite (I can see more prominent ones easily) but these appeared when I added around 15 clarity in ACR, the only ACR adjustment apart from WB. Could they simply be dust The image was then cropped and standard sharpening in PS.

Grahame

[Rebel]

Can't help you with any technical info Grahame but this looks good to me, lovely detail on the moon.

[Stagecoach]

Can't help you with any technical info Grahame but this looks good to me, lovely detail on the moon.

Thanks Matt, I was surprised at the IQ with the amount of cropping.

I know we have some experts here on the tech side of moon images and PP

[IzzieK]

Haseeb will be the one to figure out your question, Grahame. I consider him an expert on astronomy shots...but for me this is a very good shot at it with your new lens...the details of the moon is very good at 390 mm. Yes...they are stars all right not dust bunnies. You may have good eyesight for the stars but that is not your subject so you get lesser of that...

[bnnrcn]

Hi Grahame, very clear and nice shot

[Rita]

A nice clear capture of the moon. Can't help with the answer to your question though.

[deetheturk]

Lovely capture Grahame, another one of my must try sometime images

cheers David

[James G]

Grahame,
I no longer take single captures of the moon for individual processing. I get more consistent results stacking a sequence and changing the opacity to reduce/remove noise.

Ok,this is probably much more info than you want, but this is my way I shoot the moon.

Capture
I capture multiple sequences of 10 shots, tripod mounted, using mirror lockup and allowing a long count of 5 after mirror lockup before each capture. (I use a remote release )

For focusing, I ‘fix’ focus using autofocus, and then switch to manual once set. (I recheck after each capture sequence before moving to the next.)

Camera settings are an issue, being dependent on the phase of the moon although, I find that from ½ moon to 3/4 moon there is not much real variance.

My rig, is a Canon 7D Mk2 with a Sigma 50-500mm Telephoto. The lens has IS switched off (because on tripod), and as I said before, reset to manual focus once I have ‘set’ from auto.

I’d suggest starting with the following camera settings :-

For full moon.... F11 1/160 ISO 100
For ½ moon F8 1/200 ISO 200
For ¼ moon F8 1/160 ISO 200

In reality, I use these to ‘start’, try a capture and modify if I think it needs adjustment.

Processing (I use Photoshop CS6, imprting images into Adobe Camera Raw, pre processing before passing to Photoshop for final processing.)

In Raw, I crop all images, apply lens correction, increase clarity by about 30%

I then load the cropped sequence into Photoshop and use the following workflow:-

- Auto align all images and re-crop
- Examine each image and move sharpest to the bottom of the stack.
- From the bottom up I then change the opacity of each image to 50% of the previous layer (bottom layer is of course 100%) The opacity sequence is 100%,50%,33%,17%,14%,12%,11%,10%
- The above step removes noise across the stack, and I’ve found that usually a stack of 10 images is more than enough.
- I then create a stamp copy of the stack (Cntrl+Shift+Alt+E)
- At this stage the image is ready for whatever final adjustment and sharpening you wish to apply.

My preferred sharpening is to use my own action, but I’d suggest using Smart Sharpen, rather than Unsharp Mask, if you prefer to stick to the photoshop filters ....

- Otherwise I adjust brightness, and apply additional vibrance if needed.
- For print I usually apply a slight high pass filter.

These are from the last month or so and are all processed stacks....

#1


#2


#3



Hope it helps..... James

[James G]

Grahame, I should also have said on my earlier post that yours is a pretty good capture given it's a single image. It is also quite interesting seeing the moon at this orientation, took me a second or to remember you are in Fiji'!

[Stagecoach]

Izzie, Binnur, Rita and David,

Thanks for the comments guys, I just had to have a go after previously trying 200mm and 300mm. It made up for my disappointment of having planned for the past few weeks a shot lat weekend at which time the moon would have risen at the same time as the sun set but got clouded out completely.

[Stagecoach]

James, thank you for the detailed explanation of your procedure, it was very useful to me. Regarding my question I have since PPd images that were exposed at around -1EV up to those exposed correctly (just before clipping) and found little difference in the final results that I can achieve.

I just may have another go tonight if the clouds allow and follow your procedure to see what I can achieve

[funkyant]

Just wow! Very nice from the OP and from James G. I love the visible stars in the OPs picture.

[Stagecoach]

Just wow! Very nice from the OP and from James G. I love the visible stars in the OPs picture.

Thank you James. That No 3 of James Gs is superb.