How I shoot the moon..

[Guy]

Originally Posted by astanton

And in terms of my shooting... all were way over exposed.. I don't have a light meter so I am relying on Canon's sensors but I probably have something set wrong and it is averaging the dark background with the light moon. How do I get the camera sensors to just meter the brightness of the moon? is that possible at all?

Hi Angela,
Most camera's have three metering modes: Introduction to Metering Modes

There are three primary Metering Modes:
1. Evaluative or Matrix
2. Partial or Spot
3. Center-Weighted Average

When you shoot a white scene like snow with Matrix metering the camera will meter the scene to 18% gray.

This works because of the following: Your camera's light metering system is calibrated to the brightness of average gray ("18% gray"). That means that in evaluative metering mode, the camera will determine the exposure so that the average brightness of the whole image is 18% gray. Snow is brighter than 18% gray, so if you let the camera decide without exposure compensation, it will tend to make the snow too dark (gray) instead of white. By setting exposure compensation to +1/2 or +1, you deliberately overexpose a little bit, so that the snow becomes white.

While shooting the moon you could be using a spot meter on the moon which would be just like shooting scene of snow. If you are shooting in Matrix mode and the moon is a large portion of the scene you may still trick the meter into under exposing. If the moon is smaller then the metering system is seeing mainly black and will cause the camera to over expose. I know this sounds backwards, but remember the metering is trying to get the image to 18% gray. Dark Scenes will get lighter and White Scenes will get darker. You will need to adjust your exposure compensation or in manual mode you could play with shutter or aperture controls.

[eosandy]

Originally Posted by astanton

Beautiful moon pix! I have two questions and am really looking forward to your response (and help!).

I am a serious pleasure photographer who would like to migrate my work toward art in the very near future. I just recently received my new camera (5D Mark II) and also bought a tripod (Manfrotto 055XPROB) and ball head (Manfrotto 488RC2) and set up last night to experience moon photography but I ran into a couple of troubles, one with the tripod/ball head and the other with my exposure. I am wondering if you could advise me what I am doing wrong.

I used my Canon EF 300 mm 1:4 L IS lens for a few shots and then added a 2X II extender (also by Canon), which puts considerable weight on the ball head and tripod. that is why I bought this tripod and ball head... it is supposed to be able to support up to 11 lbs but I could only fix the camera focus centering the moon if I originally aimed way up over the moon and after I tightend, the camera naturally sagged down to the center of the moon... naturally none of the shots turned out sharp as a result. What is your suggestion on this one?

And in terms of my shooting... all were way over exposed.. I don't have a light meter so I am relying on Canon's sensors but I probably have something set wrong and it is averaging the dark background with the light moon. How do I get the camera sensors to just meter the brightness of the moon? is that possible at all?

Thanks for your help!!!
Angela

Hi Angela,

It's best to try and have the camera+lens centre of gravity over the centre of the tripod. Are you using a collar fitted to the lens attached to the tripod? This limits the amount of off-center loading seen by the ball-head. As a workaround, you could try fixing your camera in "a" position on the ball head, and make minor adjustments by altering tripod leg lengths. This has worked for me in the past, but you do need a second person to support your setup just in case...

[brwneyes16]

Ok, this is my first post on this forum and my first attempt at moon photography. It's just like me to try this for the first time on the night of a full moon. The pictures turned out ok. I want to try again when the moon is 1/2 to 3/4 to see if I can get better craters. But, here's my picture:



It was taken with a Nikon D50, at 220mm, f18, 1/320. I followed the instructions and increased contrast and sharpened in post processing. I shot in raw and converted to .jpg. I thought I had the ISO set at 200 but I think its an automatic setting and the finished picture says the ISO was 1600. I'm sure this makes a difference. If someone has any suggestions how to change this setting and if it would help, let me know. Thanks for taking a look and be gentle. lol

[britwolf]

Wow! just WOW Oo

[bethard728]

Very cool! Love the one of the church!

[ckodonne]

Great shot, I just took some moon pictures last night following your instructions and will edit them tonight and repost.

[Dazed and confused]

Thanks for sharing your settings Arlon your shots are amazing.

[arlon]

Originally Posted by Dazed and confused

Thanks for sharing your settings Arlon your shots are amazing.

Welcome, just hope everyone is able to get out and get some better moon shots!

[troiscouleurs]

Thanks for this ... eerily enough we moved into our new house yesterday and I was out on the patio watching the moon come up thinking "I must get my camera out for that soon", so finding this thread (or: actually reading this forum for the first time) is rather good timing. If I take any good shots I'll post them!

[Aegea]

Here's a shot I took with a telescope (Celestron Comet Catcher f/3.6), just for comparison. Nikon D40, 1/400 sec at 400 ISO.