How I shoot the moon..

[CobraNutt]

Originally Posted by Aegea

Here's one I shot this morning. Nikon D40, Nikkor 70-300mm G VR @300mm. 1/640 sec at f11, ISO 400, handheld, manual focus. Just lucky with a passing plane while I was out trying to shoot some birds.

Very cool!! Great timing!!

[arlon]

Lovely shot. That's just pretty cool!

[FormElement]

Originally Posted by Maite

Hello....I just registered here today...am looking for help for tonite....I have a NikonD3 and don't know much in fotography...I want to catch the full moon tonite....but I dont know how to do it to get a perfect photo.....HElp !....thanks

I don't know if this has been said, but 300mm is barely enough to see the moon in any detail at all on a 12mp Aps-C sensor. at 300mm the moon takes up about 15% of the frame, at most, and a huge crop is required to get those full square aspect ratio images.

Also, focus in manual is not good enough I think. You have to use live view and zoom all the way in. A micro difference in focus is a world of difference in sharpness at that crop ratio. This from personal experience.

Attached files show the original and the cropped, edited version for comparison. Note that it also helps to have a really good 300mm (or longer!) lens. Cheap lenses tend to be soft at their extremes, and this was taken with a cheap lens. I applied massive sharpening and then a pretty good amount of noise reduction to bring it back to something less than an eyesore.

[senorfrisk]

D40
200mm
1/200
f/9.0
ISO 400
-1.67 exposure bias

October 21,2009

[Gaurav Prabhu]

^Looks wonderful. Love the deep background & the slicy moon.

[arlon]

11-05-09

Nice clear skies tonight..


LARGER VERSION

[kjonnnn]

Here a helpful guide for moon photos.

Moon exposure calculator | All Day I Dream About Photography

[chrisc]

I just love your moon shots. I tried and oh yes I was on auto as my uncle pointed out you need it on manual. I think I might be out there again tonight now after seeing yours.
Chrisc

[Kieran2009]

So I take it I should be able to get something decent with a 70-300mm Nikon lens on a D90. This is cool as I would like to try adding a moon to an image here or there as you say. I just couldn't afford the extra long lens that I though I might need to get something worth saving. I'll have to give it a shot.

P.S. You have some great shots there and thanks for the info and encouragement to give it a try. I think I just missed the full moon.

[Blaze Jaffe]

Great moon shots! I am going to have to try this if the weather is clear next full moon cycle...