Night Photography - need help

[Aldonis]

Help! I've had my camera for many years - but jsut recently have taken a class and am trying to actual use it. Saw a beautiful moon rise tonight - and grabbed the camera and tried a few shots. Didn't get what I expected and really didn't know how to go about this - but not sure what to do different. I shot on Shutter priority and played around with exposure time thinking that was the key for the night shot. Is that right? Any ideas/advice/thoughts greatly appreciated.

All pictures are with a Digital Rebel 300D with Sigma lens.

Feeble attempt #1:



f5.6
6 second shutter speed
Iso 100
52MM focal length

Feeble attempt #2:



f5.6
20 second shutter
ISO 100
56mm focal length

Feeble Attempt #3



f5.6
13 second shutter
ISO 100
56mm Focal length

Feeble Attempt #4



f5.6
Shutter 20 seconds
ISO 100
80MM focal length

Not sure where the funky light on the left came from....

[Nicole]

I've moved this over to the technique area where it's better suited.

Shots of the moon and the light it creates are tricky. Why? Because the moon is so bright. So that means that if you leave your shutter open for a long time in order to get ambient light, you'll wind up with a result like shot 4 (which by the way, the green thing is caused by the light reflecting inside your lens, if you have a UV filter on, take it off at night). But if you want to capture the moody light of the moon behind clouds, for example, you get something like shot 2 or 3 where you see the glow of the moon, but it's mostly black.

So what are the options then? Well, here are a few articles to get you started:

Moon Photography Made Simple
Super Moon Photography: How to Photosgraph & Shoot the Moon | MCP Photography Blog
And a little bit of useful information here: Night Photography: Photographing The Moon In The Landscape – PictureCorrect

[Aldonis]

Thanks Nicole - sorry for posting in wrong place.

Wow - sounds like I did about everything wrong - I did slow shutter and tight aperature....those links you posted seemed to say FAST shutter and wide open aperature.

DOH! Guess that's how we learn!

Thanks so much for the very helpful links.

Al

[Nicole]

No worries about posting in the wrong place The technique area tends to get missed a lot.

And I can say from experience that it's a right pain trying to get the moon with the clouds, so don't worry about feeling like you've done everything wrong. It's how we learn to do better after all! Hopefully the moon cooperates for another night or two for you to try again.

[Doug Sundseth]

Because of the brightness of the moon, some of my best moon pictures come when the moon sets shortly after sunrise or rises shortly before sunset. It's easier to balance the sky exposure with the moon exposure in that situation.

Conveniently, that happens tomorrow morning.