Super moon over Boston's Back Bay

[DanK]

Went out tonight to try to capture the super moon. This was my first quick edit. It's a single shot, ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/13, 280mm with a 7D. the slow exposure cost me detail in the moon, I think. Comments welcome.

[Shadowman]

I like it.

[Stagecoach]

Good one Dan.

Out of curiosity what did you focus on?

[FootLoose]

I like the composition, Dan. Capturing the moon near familiar / recognisable objects gives a sense of scale that is missing in shots that only capture the moon itself.

It's a single shot, ISO 100, f/7.1, 1/13, 280mm with a 7D. the slow exposure cost me detail in the moon, I think. Comments welcome.

FWIW, a photographer with a national newspaper has offered advice to people wanting to photograph the moon tonight. Among some obvious suggestions, he recommends high iso to attain high shutter speed:

"Exposure was- 3200 iso, F8, 1/5000 sec, white balance set to flash. Modern digital cameras have great iso so don’t be scared to use it. Give yourself a medium range F stop that still allows you to keep a higher shutter speed to give you a crisp shot."

[Wavelength]

Nice one

[IzzieK]

"Exposure was- 3200 iso, F8, 1/5000 sec, white balance set to flash.

I do not understand about using the flash for a faraway object of focus...

[billtils]

Izzie, the advice is to set the WB to "Flash", not to use flash to take the photograph. I was given the same advice by a pro in regard to taking macros of mushrooms in moderate light.

[Rob Ekins]

Izzie,

"white balance set to flash." does not mean the flash fired, it means that the cameras WB settings were set to be colour balanced to flash or a colour temp close to it.

[Donald]

Good one, Dan. I think there's enough detail in the moon. If you wanted, you could pull more structure out in post-processing.

It's been cloudy here the last two evenings so I haven't got anything. Hopefully the next couple of days might provide an opportunity.

[madcrow]

Nicely done.

[ccphoto]

It is a rare moment when I shoot the moon at any other setting than 1/250, F:/8, ISO 400 Auto WB. I do most of these handheld with great clarity.

[DanK]

Thanks, all. Donald, that's a good suggestion. I will try it.

Re WB: if you are shooting RAW, the only thing that matters--and this matters only as a convenience--is tht you used a fixed WB setting so that the camera doesn't keep changing it as the light changes. That gives you a more consistent starting point, which is particularly handy if you may blend exposures. However, you can change the WB in post. Shooting at 5200, as I often do, and then warming to tungsten in post will give you the same results as shooting at tungsten and not adjusting. For night photography, I often can't visualize how an image will turn out in terms of colors, so I rely on adjustments in post, but I usually start at something near daylight.

Re shutter speed: if I were doing this over, I would probably shoot it at a somewhat faster speed. However, I don't agree with this:

Exposure was- 3200 iso, F8, 1/5000 sec, white balance set to flash. Modern digital cameras have great iso so don’t be scared to use it. Give yourself a medium range F stop that still allows you to keep a higher shutter speed to give you a crisp shot.

Even on modern cameras, there is no free lunch. Among other things, upping ISO by 5 stops, as that person recommends, will cost you considerable dynamic range. If I were shooting ONLY the moon, I might use quite a high ISO because the dynamic range is limited, but that isn't the case in a shot like this, where I didn't want the surroundings reduced to a silhouette. There were four of us shooting this together, and we were debating what the best compromise would be, but the moon didn't wait for us. In retrospect, I might have tried this at IS0 800 and 1/50, or possibly 1600 and 1/100. I think I have a different shot at IS0 800, so I will have to find time to compare. I'll have to experiment with non-super moons, I guess.

[rpcrowe]

Izzie, the advice is to set the WB to "Flash", not to use flash to take the photograph. I was given the same advice by a pro in regard to taking macros of mushrooms in moderate light.

I always shoot in RAW and do whatever color adjustments are needed in PP...

[bnnrcn]

Nice image Dan, the moon looks big really

[IzzieK]

izzie,

"white balance set to flash." does not mean the flash fired, it means that the cameras wb settings were set to be colour balanced to flash or a colour temp close to it.

izzie, the advice is to set the wb to "flash", not to use flash to take the photograph. I was given the same advice by a pro in regard to taking macros of mushrooms in moderate light.

Hmmm....seems you two have done this before...

OK I understand now, I used to shoot the moon on WB Daylight and it worked. Would that be the same? Or just similar? Shooting mushroom with WB flash is new to me...so thank you for that one, Bill...

[Rob Ekins]

Hey Izzie,
I personally shoot everything on Auto WB and adjust for personal preference in ACR.

I guess daylight makes sense for moon shots as it is the light source.