Silhouette - Full Moon

[ffchocobo]

I have been wondering why I cannot seem to be able to get more detail on the Moon in this shot. I have asked around and some suggested that it is due to the air turbulence combined with the Sigma lens that I used would produce such a soft image. Is it really my equipment and location that's the cause of this? Is there anyway around it? Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.


Silhouette - Full Moon by Chobie Chobes, on Flickr

Shot was taken at ISO100, f/5.6, 1/640 shutter speed, White balance (corrected in PS), at 300mm on a Sigma 70-300mm (equivalent to 450mm on film).

[Jayman11]

Neat shot! I haven't had much luck with moons shots myself. I tried using my 70-300mm also and at 300mm it is real soft. Try backing down to like 200 or 250 and see if that helps. I have a Sigma 50-500mm coming in hopefully tomorrow. Curious to see how that changes the game. Also, the atmosphere is def a big factor, if you're near a city, you're probably gonna pick up the pollutants and whatnot in the atmosphere more than you would in say the countryside. I know shooting the full moon also is very difficult and reading around on here everyone gets the best shots from partial moons. I'll have to keep an eye on this thread and see if you get an answer cause I would love to get some nice crisp shots myself. What camera are you using?

[ffchocobo]

Wow, a 50-500mm ?! That's 750mm if you used on an APS-C sensor camera. That is some truly crazy glass you have coming. Not to be a downer, but from some people who I've been talking to they say that a prime lens will always out perform a zoom lens when it comes to sharpness. Though I have not had the pleasure of testing it myself.

My camera is a Nikon D3000.

[Jayman11]

Yeah it's 75-750mm on my crop sensor. LOL. I def agree on the prime lens. Only issue is, I can't afford a $10k+ lens. I have a 50mm prime but it's a bit short of range when it comes to the moon.

[freybear3]

use F9-11 and 1/150-1/300

it really brings the moon details out

heres an example of my moon photos
Wolf Moon

check em out



.

[ffchocobo]

Stopping up was one thing that someone else recommended to me as well, however I am still uncertain how that would help. Aperture controls the amount of light and also the depth of field. With something like the moon being at infinity, I would expect nearly all stops to be be the same.

Is my understanding correct?

Nice shots btw.

[Bryan Lao]

This is a good image

[PrimeTime]

Cool shot ffchocobo. You have a couple things working against you in this shot.

1. you're only using 300mm lens. Not even close to filling the frame, leaving you with a HEAVY crop. The crop is causing alot of grain and noise.(biggest issue)

2. Shooting the sigma lens wide open at 300mm. This lens will do a much better job if you stop it down a bit. (most zoom lenses will). You're not stopping down because you need more depth of field, but because the lens preforms better stopped down.

Some noise reduction in post will help alot.

A camera with more megapixels will allow more crop, or a much longer lens will help fill the frame.

[ffchocobo]

Ah, PrimeTime that makes sense now. I keep disregarding the quality of the lens and how it performs when I set up and think about my shots. You see, the lens is my friends and I only borrowed it so I don't really know too much about it since it's my first non Nikkor lens.

Also filling the frame would be nice, but what focal length would that require?! I knew this was an expensive hobby but something about filling the frame when shooting the moon is screaming expensive to me!

[Jayman11]

some good info guys. Hopefully the sky is clear tonight, gonna try with the 500mm and see what I get.