Lunar Photography

[rwalsh81]

I'm going to be on Cape Cod in the next couple of weeks and want to try and get some night time shots including the moon. I'm shooting on a Canon SL1, would I be good with a 70-300mm lens with a 2x extender attached?

 

[photo1x1.com]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Usually 70-300mm should have a maximum opening of f5.6. With a 2x extender that would be f11. That would give you a shutter speed of around 1/100th at ISO 200 for the moon in a clear night, which is fine if you have a good tripod.
With the 600mm and the 1.6x crop factor of your camera, the moon would cover a little less than 1/3 of the height of your image.
Does that help?

 

[rwalsh81]

Thanks for the reply. I'm still new to photography so some of what you said is still a little to jargon filled. But from what I can understand that's the long way of saying as long as it's clear and you're using a tripod I'm good to go.

 

[photo1x1.com]

Haha, yes - exactly . Use spot metering on the moon, or manual exposure though (dialing in f11 Aperture | 1/100 Shutter Speed | 200 ISO), otherwise the moon will very likely be overexposed if you use the full auto mode.

 

[rwalsh81]

Great thanks. I'm still learning but have been able to get some great shots, I do like doing the manual shots and plan to get some good ones. I'm looking at picking up the 24mm next week before I leave to get some nice sun rise shots over the ocean too. But this is also in preparation for next month's eclipse, I've got my filter ready to go. Although I wish I could find one that will keep a little more color to the picture, but that's for another board.

 

[TCampbell]

You'll want to consider the timing of which night to shoot the moon. The moon is past the first quarter and approaching full. When it's "full" you don't get the shadows and that means the moon looks rather plain, flat, 2-dimensional. When it's nearer to first or last quarter the sunlight is illuminating from the side and that means you get lots of shadow detail near the terminator that separates the light and dark sides -- you'll see more texture and will appear more 3-dimensional.

The full moon is this Sunday, July 9. If you wanted to shoot moonrise you can get a dramatic shot around 30 minutes or so after sunset during the "blue hour". The "golden hour" is the hour prior to sunset when the sun is low and the lighting is golden. After sunset, we get the "blue hour" when the sky is a dusky blue color and still enough light to illuminate the foreground. This gives you foreground interest (it's not just a moon in an otherwise black frame) but the sky has had time to darken to a dusky blue instead of the pale blue of full sun.

Shooting a full-moon moonrise usually actually looks best the 1 day PRIOR to the true full-moon. So that would be Saturday, July 8 because the moon will be rising enough to be in the sky when the sky is still dusky blue. A day later and the sky will be nearly black by the time the moon is high enough. The moon still looks "full" even a day before or after the true day of the full moon. But it will also look "flat" and 2-dimensional.

If you wait say... 5 days or so after the full moon (waning gibbous phase) or even a full week (last quarter phase) then you'll get more detail, but remember that the moon rises nearly 1 hour later each day. This means the moon won't be up in the evening... instead it will be rising several hours before dawn. You might be waking up at 2 or 3 am to get the moon shot (which is why you see FAR more moon shots of the first quarter as compared to the last quarter phase).

For the moon... the exposure guideline is the "Looney 11" rule which suggests that you'll get an accurate exposure if you use f/11 with the shutter speed set to the inverse of the ISO setting. E.g. at ISO 100 use 1/100th... at ISO 200 use 1/200th, etc.

The moon's true reflectivity is roughly the gray of a worn asphalt road or the gray of an old tire. It shouldn't be particularly bright.

The camera's phase-detect auto-focus won't work at f/11 (it won't work at any f-stop above f/5.6) so you'll need to use manual focus. You can refine focus by going into live-view and then zoom in to the 10x level and very gently tweak focus until the moon is tack sharp (don't just rely on using the "infinity" mark on your lens focus ring. That would get you close, but it won't be bang-on accurate.)

You'll also probably get better results if you can steady the camera (a tripod if you have one... if not find something like a fence or wall that you can use to prop up the lens.)

This was shot following the "looney 11" rule (ISO 100, 1/100th sec at f/11) exposure... but then adjusted in post processing to increase contrast (the "straight out of the camera shot" doesn't pop as much.)


Waxing Crescent Moon by Tim Campbell, on Flickr

 

[photo1x1.com]

Great thanks. I'm still learning but have been able to get some great shots, I do like doing the manual shots and plan to get some good ones. I'm looking at picking up the 24mm next week before I leave to get some nice sun rise shots over the ocean too. But this is also in preparation for next month's eclipse, I've got my filter ready to go. Although I wish I could find one that will keep a little more color to the picture, but that's for another board.

Awesome, is it a 24mm prime? You could get some nice milky way shots with it too. But unfortunately you can´t really have great milky way shots and the moon at the same time.
I really envy you for the eclipse! I missed the last one here in Europe

 

[rwalsh81]

Here's a link to the lens I'm getting. With where I'll be I'd still be close enough to Boston so there would be some light pollution for Milky Way shots.

Amazon.com : Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Lens : Camera & Photo

 

[TCampbell]

Great thanks. I'm still learning but have been able to get some great shots, I do like doing the manual shots and plan to get some good ones. I'm looking at picking up the 24mm next week before I leave to get some nice sun rise shots over the ocean too. But this is also in preparation for next month's eclipse, I've got my filter ready to go. Although I wish I could find one that will keep a little more color to the picture, but that's for another board.

Thousand Oaks Optical brand solar filters render the sun in a yellow/orange color.
Baader film tends to render the sun in a white (often with a slight "blue" cast) color.

But you can certainly do all the color adjustment in image editing software. I wouldn't worry too much about the color straight out of the camera.

 

[TCampbell]

Here's a link to the lens I'm getting. With where I'll be I'd still be close enough to Boston so there would be some light pollution for Milky Way shots.

Amazon.com : Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Lens : Camera & Photo

That may not be a problem because the Milky Way is basically due-south at around midnight. It won't be in the direction of the Boston light pollution. But now it depends on where on Cape Cod you'll be at the time. If at the end of the cape in Provincetown then you'll be shooting back toward the cape (since it hooks around). But if you're toward the beginning of the cape, then you'd just want to make sure you head over to a spot along the southern shore (so all the light pollution will be behind you). You might get some light domes from Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket -- I'm not sure how good/bad it is there. If you were on the south shore of Nantucket then that'd be ideal... absolutely nothing to create light pollution south of that point.

 

[rwalsh81]

I'm in Truro which is south of P-Town. But the house we're in is on the Boston side of the hook as I remember. Granted it's not far to go to the other side but I planned on doing most of my work from the roof deck of the beach house.

 

[rwalsh81]

Just saw your post about the filter for the Eclipse, I've got a Hoya ND400 filter. I tried a shot of the sun the other day at a parade (just to test it) it was fairly dark. I'll try to post that image later when I'm on my ipad or my home mac.

 

[Designer]

Thanks for the reply. I'm still new to photography so some of what you said is still a little to jargon filled. But from what I can understand that's the long way of saying as long as it's clear and you're using a tripod I'm good to go.

What photo1x1.com was telling you is that a tele-extender will decrease the amount of light going through the lens, which then requires you to use a somewhat slower shutter speed. A sturdy tripod should hold the camera steady enough to get a good picture. Good luck!

 

[benhasajeep]

If you don't have a remove release. Use your self timer to release your shutter. And if your camera has it. Use live view and mirror up. And don't walk around on the roof deck while taking pictures. The deck boards will transmit movement to your tripod, then to lens. Unless trees are in your way. Solid ground would be better for slow shutter pictures. When zoomed out like you will be for the moon. Even the littlest movements can transmit to the camera. Good hard ground would be best.

 

[KmH]

The moon will be new and very close to the sun on the 23rd of this month, which is close to "in the next couple of weeks ".
In other words, the moon will only be up during daylight hours on the 23rd - 5:39 AM to 8:19 PM from Truro.

The moon will be 3rd quarter on the 16th.
The 3rd quarter moon will start to rise at midnight on the 16th in Truro - 12:30 AM on the morning of the 17th.
Moonrise, Moonset, and Moon Phase in Nantucket