How To Shoot The MOON At It's Fullest (Brightest)

[Raoul Isidro]

This is the way I do it.
1. Use a tripod.
2. Use the longest lens. 200mm or 300mm is OK.
3. Switch to manual focus (on lens or camera, depending on brand / model)
4. Set to Manual exposure or M
5. Set ASA to 400
6. Focus to infinity and work your way slowly away from infinity. The Moon will be blurred at infinity, but sharply focused a tiny bit from that point, so play with the focus until sharp.
7. Set aperture to F8 or F11
8. Set shutter speed to 2000
9. Bracket exposures down... using shutter speeds. That is, 2000, 1500,1000, 750, 500, 350, 250, 180, etc.
10. Somewhere between those bracketed exposures will be a nicely exposed photo of the Moon.

[IMG][/IMG]

Let me know how you go with this technique!
Cheers!


(Please note that this guideline is for Full Moon conditions only. The exposure settings will vary and change extensively if it is NOT a Full Moon.)

[availablelight]

Interesting read, I used a completely different process last night..

Your shot is pretty good, but it has a green color cast, you need to go into Photoshop, go into Curves and use the grey Eye-dropper tool and click anywhere on the moon and it will correct it to a more natural neutral tone...

1: Obviously you need a tripod
2: The longer the better: I used my 300 + 1.7x convertor and changed my D3x from FX to DX, adding 1.5 to the focal length
3: I let my camera do the focussing, although MF works fine too
4: Agree, I also shot in Manual
5: I used 200 ISO
6: see point 3
7: I shot my lens wide open @ f4.8 although if I did it tonight I would go to 400 ISO and stop the lens down a bit to maybe f6.3
8: I would say the first few of those exposures at 1/2000 @ f11 would be very dark. I ended up @ 1/50
9: A couple of shots will find the sweet spot

The two biggest variables in the whole process are stability of the tripod and mirror slap.

I'd recommend using a cable release/or timer and using Mirror Lock Up. That eliminates any vibration from fingers on the shutter button, or from mirror slap.

Shutter speed is an issue as well for the same reaons, plus the moon is moving pretty fast. If your camera has super ISO performance it would be worth boosting that to get a faster shutter speed..

The other thing is atmospheric interference. Getting up high helps, the best moon shots I ever got were at high altitudes in the Himalaya...



Here's mine from last night.. Night Face photo - Available Light Images photos at pbase.com

seems to be lacking a lot of detail in the moon.

[pasoviennese]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

seems to be lacking a lot of detail in the moon.

You moron!

[Sime]

Originally Posted by pasoviennese

You moron!

That's constructive....

NOT

[BCampbell]

Originally Posted by Raoul Isidro

This is the way I do it.
1. Use a tripod.
2. Use the longest lens. 200mm or 300mm is OK.
3. Switch to manual focus (on lens or camera, depending on brand / model)
4. Set to Manual exposure or M
5. Set ASA to 400
6. Focus to infinity and work your way slowly away from infinity. The Moon will be blurred at infinity, but sharply focused a tiny bit from that point, so play with the focus until sharp.
7. Set aperture to F8 or F11
8. Set shutter speed to 2000
9. Bracket exposures down... using shutter speeds. That is, 2000, 1500,1000, 750, 500, 350, 250, 180, etc.
10. Somewhere between those bracketed exposures will be a nicely exposed photo of the Moon.

Hm.

#1: I always like to use a cable release when working on a tripod.

#3: The moon has plenty of contrast, so autofocus will likely work. Doing #3 and #6 is a good way to shoot things at night that either don't have a lot of contrast (so the Af can't pick it up) or that are moving -- like fireworks, in particular -- but probably not necessary for the moon.

#5: The moon is plenty bright. ISO400 (ASA is technically a film term) is overkill; your example is plenty grainy, and we have enough to contend with in getting a crisp shot of the moon. You should be able to use ISO 100 or lower if your camera supports it.

#7: Lens-dependent; with longer telephotos f/16 or smaller might even be better.

#8/9: Okay 2000 is too fast, what's the point of shooting ISO400@1/2000th when you can do ISO100@1/500th? With a full moon, depending on how much of the frame you're taking up, you should be able to shoot around 1/60th-1/180th @ ISO100, f/11, adjusting for different apertures or ISO speeds of course. The trick is to not go too slow on shutter speed, because the moon moves, quite fast actually.

Not bad advice, a good start actually, but I think after some practice there are a few tweaks to be done to get sharper results.

[San_Sebastian]

Actually, this is a great idea where to start. Last night I missed a heck of a chance to capture the moon because I had no idea where to even begin adjusting the settings.


Thanks for all the advice. Once the cold and rain clears up, I'd love to try this

[PhotoBlazr]

Yeah thanks for the info. I always wondered how to shoot the moon properly without too much equipment. Will try these settings next time.

[JeffSmith]

I simplified this shot.

I set the camera to 100 ISO and underexposed by 1 stop.
Selected "spot meter" and zoomed in with a 100-400mm lens.
Hand held, focussing was really difficult, it's so finite to capture; next time I'll use a tripod!

Here you go...




Can't wait to have another go at this, let's hope for some cloud-free nights and not too cold so we can capture more detail in the craters.

Good luck,

Cheers,

Jeff

[Brian_Cooney]

Jeff,

That is awesome.