Shooting the Moon

[teepee12]

You may wonder how come there's no image. Well, here's how it went.

I decided tonight was the night. Nearly full moon, nice and bright. I brought up my tripod and set it up on the back deck. Put the 300 mm lens on the camera. Got it all aimed right at that big ole' moon.

I turned off the IS. I put it on manual. I set it to a 5 minute exposure and F 16 for an infinite DOF. I got it in what I fondly believed to be focus, counting on the infinity factor to compensate for my imperfect vision.

Not having a wired release for the Olympus, I set it to a 2 second delay to avoid shake from releasing the shutter manually.

I pressed the button and after holding my breath for 2 seconds, it fired.

The moon disappeared behind a cloud. My battery went from reading "full" to "empty" in about 3 seconds.

I turned the camera off, put in a full battery, and put the dead one up to charge. I closed the tripod, put it in it's nice padded carrying case, and tucked my camera in for the night.

That's a wrap, guys. Let's all go home and get some sleep.

[kcoppock]

Wut?

Out of curiousity, what were you going for with a 5 minute exposure?

For the moon, something like 1/160 or 1/320 will be more than sufficient.

[teepee12]

Originally Posted by kcoppock

Wut?

Out of curiousity, what were you going for with a 5 minute exposure?

For the moon, something like 1/160 or 1/320 will be more than sufficient.

Honestly? That's what said on the last web site i was on where they were talking about moon shots ... So... you can capture it that fast? Really? I'll believe anything anyone tells me at this point. Anyway, among other revelations was that I am not going to take pictures of the moon from the deck until after the leaves fall. Till then, I need to find another location.

[kcoppock]

Originally Posted by teepee12

Honestly? That's what said on the last web site i was on where they were talking about moon shots ... So... you can capture it that fast? Really? I'll believe anything anyone tells me at this point. Anyway, among other revelations was that I am not going to take pictures of the moon from the deck until after the leaves fall. Till then, I need to find another location.

Yeah, the attached is an ISO-200, 200mm, 1/60, f/8 shot. A five minute shot is just going to be a white streak on a black canvas (watch the moon through the viewfinder; you'll be surprised how quickly it moves). But yeah, I can't shoot cause of the trees where I'm at, either. I usually just take my tripod to the park; might be a good solution if you have one nearby.

[vorlon1]

Originally Posted by teepee12

Honestly? That's what said on the last web site i was on where they were talking about moon shots ... So... you can capture it that fast? Really? I'll believe anything anyone tells me at this point. Anyway, among other revelations was that I am not going to take pictures of the moon from the deck until after the leaves fall. Till then, I need to find another location.

I took this around 3 AM tonight with ISO 400, 1/1600, f/8, using a Canon18-200mm lens zoomed to 200mm. It was handheld and the autofocus actually worked. So, you can see that you can use much faster settings than originally thought.

[WayneW]

Took this on Sept. 8 just before a large cloud began to cover the moon. 1/250th at f8 and ISO 200. I used to (with film cameras) take 4 or 5 minute exposures at the lake with a full moon, but not including the moon in the shot. Resulting images would look very much like daylight shots. Once, there was a boat anchored offshore that I could not see when I was taking the shot, but the long exposure brought it out. If I remember correctly, I used around f4 and ISO 100 color film.



Exif data
Camera Nikon D200
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 155 mm
Focal Length 155.4 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash
Orientation Horizontal (normal)

[Hill Country Hack]

I too use f8 with ISO at 100 and mount on a tripod. It usually gets me a faster shutter speed, I shoot with some light left in the sky, manual focus and purposly underexpose about one stop and maybe a bit more. I then make the sky black in PP. This is what I get. I converted this one to B&W.

[anupartha]

Moon has been my fav subject since I started using Digital camera. I have come a long way, yet to get that perfect shot. This shot from my last year file. Camera- Canon powershot, auto focus with digital zoom on, hand held.

[WayneW]

Here is one of the shots I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread:


This was taken 4 or 5 years ago when
the water level in Lake Marion was very low. It was 10:30 at night, with a full moon,
I believe in December. Exposure was 4 to 5 minutes at f4. Color film was ISO 100.

[Amwajkayaker]

Ha ha . . . That really made me laugh (yes, I have a warped sense of humor!). Better luck next time!