Argh! Can anyone help me with the moon?

[kristenh]

I took this last night:



scouted out my place, arrived just after moonrise (which was soon after sunset), had my tripod, little light pollution, etc. i was trying to get the rising moon silhouetted with trees. this was the best of nearly 100 shots. anybody have good ideas about where i went wrong- exposure - wise, mainly. other comments would of course be welcome. here's the exif data:

nikon d5000
focal length 170
shutter speed 1/30
f 5.6
iso 500.

thanks!

[BexJarratt]

You were using a tripod, does your lens have image stabilisation? Was it on? Did you press the button for release or use a remote? I think there looks like a hint of movement, which is making more fuzzy. - Please some-one correct me if you think I'm miss reading it, I'm a beginner.

I don't think the image is focused as sharp as it could be, did you have it auto-focusing?

Otherwise, I think the moon might be a little over-exposed. Maybe try cranking up the aperture a notch, or the shutter speed.

[EOBeav]

The shots that you're used to seeing of nighttime scenes with lots of detail in the moon as well as the ground are actually a combination of 2, 3 or more shots taken at different exposures. Software, such as Photomatix or Luminance is used to get the best details from all of them and combine them into a single image.

[NicoleScraps]

I have only been able to take successful moon photos by using a much faster shutter speed. Around 1/160 or something like that. That will give you all of the detail, like the moons craters and so forth. With a slow speed like this, the moon ends up looking like a big ball of light which is fine, depending on what look you are going for.
I am going off of memory from the last time I did some moon shots, but try using manual mode, ISO 200, somewhere around f4 and then play with the shutter, slow and fast to compare your results.

[SwissJon]

Looks like your photograph was over exposed to the moon and under exposed to the environment.

Your focal length wasn't very long, which means it's going to appear quite small on your lens, your camera was probably set to centre weighted exposure.

I'd suggest you take several shots.. Let your camera decide the exposure and then switch it to manual mode. Reduce the exposure by increasing the speed 1 click at a time, somewhere in there will be a correctly exposed picture. I'd also suggest you change your aperture to somewhere between f/8 and f/11, that seems to be the sweet spot for most lenses.

I took this photograph last month, the picture is cropped to about 1/3 the overall frame size, the shorter the lens, the smaller the picture, the smaller the picture, the fuzzier it's going to be. Used LR do sharpen the image a little.

Aperture: F10
Exposure time: 1/13" (-2*EV)
Focal Length: 280mm

[navcom]

It looks like you have a couple issues going on...image stabilization and a bit of overexposure. Lots of good comments already so I'll just add a couple things.

The problem most of us have with exposing the moon properly is that it's night and the subconscious thinks "dark". Actually the moon is very bright and when you combine that with the very dark foreground you actually have a huge dynamic range. But the same rules apply at night as they do during the day.

Best advice I can give is to make sure your tripod is stable, you are using a remote shutter switch/cable, and you have your shutter delay option on your camera set (most already pointed out here). All these will eliminate any shake there might be in the camera.

Next, use a smaller aperture...say f/10 to f/16. At f/5.6, you are almost wide open and with such a bright object that is relatively small in your image you run a lot of risk of it "bleeding" and washing out. Also, as pointed out already, the closer you get to the moon, the more detail you are going to pull out and the less washing out you will have.

Finally, check your white balance (or shoot in RAW so you can easily change it in post). Something doesn't look right there. It's best to custom set the white balance by using the whitest part of the moon as your white point (see your camera's manual for how to do that).

Otherwise it's just a matter of experimenting with the shutter speed to get the proper exposure. You don't want to slow it down too much as the moon is actually moving. 1/30th is about good, if not faster.

Here's one I did of a lunar eclipse a couple years back along with my settings...



1/30th shutter
f/16
ISO 100
500mm

Since the moon is so bright, you have to be careful when setting your exposure. First turn off everything auto and use manual mode and manual focus. Since 90% of your image is very dark, your camera's auto exposure modes will always overexpose the moon. So in order to get it exposed properly, you will have to underexpose the image as a whole.

[BexJarratt]

Originally Posted by navcom

Best advice I can give is to make sure your tripod is stable, you are using a remote shutter switch/cable, and you have your shutter delay option on your camera set (most already pointed out here). All these will eliminate any shake there might be in the camera.

I meant to mention earlier, if you're using a tripod you should make sure you have the image stabilized on your lens turned off, I've heard the vibration of the image stabiliser can actually cause camera shake.

[SwissJon]

I think one thing that's pretty obvious here. The longer your lens, the clearer your photo. Mine was about twice yours, navcoms was twice mine, and his was clearer than both ours. The other thing I've noticed is that on a hot day, or in the evening after one, shooting high magnification over long distance leads to poor image quality, no matter what focal length you use, this is caused by thermals. So if it's been hot, wait for the ground to cool before you shoot.

[kristenh]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Looks like your photograph was over exposed to the moon and under exposed to the environment.

Your focal length wasn't very long, which means it's going to appear quite small on your lens, your camera was probably set to centre weighted exposure.

I'd suggest you take several shots.. Let your camera decide the exposure and then switch it to manual mode. Reduce the exposure by increasing the speed 1 click at a time, somewhere in there will be a correctly exposed picture. I'd also suggest you change your aperture to somewhere between f/8 and f/11, that seems to be the sweet spot for most lenses.

I took this photograph last month, the picture is cropped to about 1/3 the overall frame size, the shorter the lens, the smaller the picture, the smaller the picture, the fuzzier it's going to be. Used LR do sharpen the image a little.

Aperture: F10
Exposure time: 1/13" (-2*EV)
Focal Length: 280mm

this is a wonderful shot, Jon. the crux of my problem is your first sentence, i think- i can either overexpose the moon or underexpose the trees and such. i'm not after an hdr type shot (right now, anyway)- i want the silhouette effect you've got here. i will try your suggestions next time...

Finally, check your white balance (or shoot in RAW so you can easily change it in post). Something doesn't look right there. It's best to custom set the white balance by using the whitest part of the moon as your white point (see your camera's manual for how to do that).

thanks for your ideas, navcom- i will take them into account next time. re the WB, this is actually a somewhat accurate coloring- it was just after sunset and the moon was very orange. i did put my wb on shade to accentuate that a bit, though. as you'll see below, i changed it later.

I meant to mention earlier, if you're using a tripod you should make sure you have the image stabilized on your lens turned off, I've heard the vibration of the image stabiliser can actually cause camera shake.

thanks, didn't know about this and not sure where it was set- likely on IS.

I have only been able to take successful moon photos by using a much faster shutter speed. Around 1/160 or something like that. That will give you all of the detail, like the moons craters and so forth. With a slow speed like this, the moon ends up looking like a big ball of light which is fine, depending on what look you are going for.
I am going off of memory from the last time I did some moon shots, but try using manual mode, ISO 200, somewhere around f4 and then play with the shutter, slow and fast to compare your results.

thanks, Nicole- i should have been more clear- i have actually become fairly competent at getting the moon all by itself. or at least to the level my gear allows:



EOBeav, thanks for your thoughts. i thought that was likely, and i guess that'll be my next step, but i'd like to get this right, first.

[SwissJon]

The sillouette I got was created by exposing for the moon, in fact I took 8 shots that night, steadily reducing the exposure by 1/3 eV each time, so my shots ranged from under exposed to over exposed.. Without HDR, the details in the trees etc. are only ever going to be visible as sillouettes. In this photo, the trees were on a ridge about 1000m above my location on the side of a mountain 3 km away, so as you can imagine, they were quite small, and you have to move quick because the moon appears to move quite fast at these maginfications, I was lucky because the moon was following the edge of the mountain.. Well, more planning than luck, I'd noticed it did this on previous occasions and was determined to come back and take this shot.