How to take photos of the moon.

[pocketshaver]

wait for daytime, early morning moon is fun. Have a few on a roll I need to develop.

You are using film?

yep. was out about 10 am playing with by ftb and a 100-300 zoom and well saw the moon and took a few shots. Not sure how well I zoomed in, but hey it was a lark.

You making fun of film ?

 

[Lonnie1212]

As long as we are sharing.View attachment 182558

Hi Dave,

That is an impressive silver moon picture. Do you mind sharing the camera model, lens, and settings? Excellent work!

Make NIKON CORPORATION
Model NIKON D500
Software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 8.4.1 (Windows)
Creator D STRONG
Copyright D STRONG
Exposure Time 0.0010s (1/1000)
Aperture ƒ/8.0
Exposure Manual
ISO equivalent 900
Exposure Bias none
Metering Mode Matrix
Flash Fired No
Focal Length 850.0mm 1275mm=35mm equivalent
Color Space sRGB
FocalPlaneXRes 2360.8599243164062
FocalPlaneUnits 10
Exposure Mode Manual
White Balance Auto
Focal Length (35mm) 1275
LensModel 600.0 mm f/4.0
Date 2019-10-14 22:41:53 (no TZ)
Lens 600.0 mm f/4.0

Thank you for sharing this information. It is impressive to see you are using the Nikon D500.

 

[480sparky]

As long as we are sharing.View attachment 182558

Hi Dave,

That is an impressive silver moon picture. Do you mind sharing the camera model, lens, and settings? Excellent work!

Make NIKON CORPORATION
Model NIKON D500
Software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 8.4.1 (Windows)
Creator D STRONG
Copyright D STRONG
Exposure Time 0.0010s (1/1000)
Aperture ƒ/8.0
Exposure Manual
ISO equivalent 900
Exposure Bias none
Metering Mode Matrix
Flash Fired No
Focal Length 850.0mm 1275mm=35mm equivalent
Color Space sRGB
FocalPlaneXRes 2360.8599243164062
FocalPlaneUnits 10
Exposure Mode Manual
White Balance Auto
Focal Length (35mm) 1275
LensModel 600.0 mm f/4.0
Date 2019-10-14 22:41:53 (no TZ)
Lens 600.0 mm f/4.0

Thank you for sharing this information. It is impressive to see you are using the Nikon D500.

I'm not. I use D600s. I just showed the EXIF data for the image you requested.

 

[Lonnie1212]

wait for daytime, early morning moon is fun. Have a few on a roll I need to develop.

When you said that you have a few on a roll to develop. I first thought of someone developing a roll of film.

 

[photoflyer]

As others have said, single focus point, spot metering. It is so bright you'll find you can get away with hand holding it as the shutter speed should be in the 1500 range depending on ISO. Of course a tripod is better.

I was just goofing around yesterday with a new super zoom I got for travel and took this. It is not the best lens (Tamron 18-400) but the results were fine considering the compromises in a lens like this.

Again, nothing special just taken on a whim: 1/2000 f 8 ISO 400, 400mm (crop equivalent 640) hand held.

 

[PJM]

As others have said, single focus point, spot metering. It is so bright you'll find you can get away with hand holding it as the shutter speed should be in the 1500 range depending on ISO. Of course a tripod is better.

I was just goofing around yesterday with a new super zoom I got for travel and took this. It is not the best lens (Tamron 18-400) but the results were fine considering the compromises in a lens like this.

Again, nothing special just taken on a whim: 1/2000 f 8 ISO 400, 400mm (crop equivalent 640) hand held.

View attachment 182566

I never saw crop expressed that way, "crop equivalent". I like it. How do you determine it? Or does your editing software give it to you?

 

[Strodav]

As long as we are sharing.View attachment 182558

Hi Dave,

That is an impressive silver moon picture. Do you mind sharing the camera model, lens, and settings? Excellent work!

Nikon D500, Nikon 600mm f/4, Nikon TC-14E III 1.4x teleconverter, Sirui EN2204 carbon tripod, Nest 530h carbon gimbal head, Neewer remote release.
ISO 900, 1260mm (35mm equiv), 1/1000 sec, f/8.

The biggest problem with shooting the moon with long lenses, IMHO, is camera shake. You can get away with 1/250 sec to freeze the moon's motion, but I usually use about 1/1000 to minimize shake. Other things to consider are using the camera's timer or a remote release, mirror up, but just making sure all sources of vibration or motion are removed, especially wind. Putting the tripod on solid ground is a good idea and extend the spikes if your tripod is so equipped. I like to shoot in Live View for best possible focus.

 

[beagle100]

Hi all,

I have seen photos of the moon taking by people and they look amazing . Would anybody be able to guide me on how to take these providing I have the correct lense to do so. The lense I have is a nikon 70mm-300mm 4.5-6.3 vr.
I did try to take a few shots but all I got was a bright round light that looked like a head light of a car in the distance .

Thanks
Wayne.

tripod, mirrorless camera, sigma 150-600mm zoom ... 2 sec shutter

www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless

Untitled by c w, on Flickr

 

[photoflyer]

never saw crop expressed that way, "crop equivalent". I like it. How do you determine it? Or does your editing software give it to you?

I may be opening a can of worms on the forum but on Canon multiply by 1.6 and Nikon 1.5. So, my Canon 300mm f 4 L is 300mm on the full frame and 480 on the crop sensor.

tripod, mirrorless camera, sigma 150-600mm zoom ... 2 sec shutter

Nice shot. Do you live in a low humidity area?

 

[wfooshee]

The main thing to remember when shooting the moon and setting the camera is that the moon is a sunlit object; treat it like daylight. You don't need long exposures or extremely high ISO settings, just a stop or two more exposure than a sunny afternoon outdoors. You may find that even a well-exposed image of the moon is bland and disappointing compared to some of these, until you learn how to enhance the contrast in post, either by playing with levels, brightness/contrast, or in RAW, work with shadows, blacks, highlights, and whites.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

The photo from beagle is as good as any I have seen. I am curious how much post processing was involved?



To drift a bit from the OP question, the full moon can be as a back light.

 

[Michael Smith 12]

Check out these guides

• Photography Life
• LightStalking
• Expert Photography

These should start you off. Meanwhile, the most important tip is and always will be to practice, practice and practice.

 

[PJM]

never saw crop expressed that way, "crop equivalent". I like it. How do you determine it? Or does your editing software give it to you?

I may be opening a can of worms on the forum but on Canon multiply by 1.6 and Nikon 1.5. So, my Canon 300mm f 4 L is 300mm on the full frame and 480 on the crop sensor.

I thought you were doing something different. I thought you were cropping it in your editing software and then expressing how much you cropped it by using an equivalent focal length. For example, shot it at 400 and then cropped it in editing software so that it looks like it came from a 640.

I know this only applies to size and not clarity so I hope it doesn't start a firestorm.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

PJM

I guess cropping with post processing or with " lens equivalent" would give you the same results as you are only using only a portion of the available lens projection. But yes you are correct that using a portion of the 35 mm format projected by the 35mm lens would give you a better picture, because you are not having to crop and enlarge the digital sensor image.

However, these days once the image has entered post processing, the fidelity of the original image is at the hands of the photo artist. So, starting with a better image may not make much difference in the final product.

 

[photo1x1.com]

Just a few more additional tips to what has been said.

1. In the morning the atmosphere often seems to be clearer
2. The higher up the moon is, the less atmosphere you have to shoot through. That means the moon is brighter and the air clearer
3. Consider shooting in burst mode. The atmosphere flickers. Your image can be clear at one time and pretty blurry a fraction of a second later - you can then select the best image out of a series
4. Avoid shooting near bodies of water, open windows or anything that might emit warmth or heat into the cooler air. That will create flicker in the air and blur the moon.
5. Many people will tell you that you have to go to an area with little light pollution. I´ve tried in the mountains, in the countryside (one of the least polluted and least industrial parts in Europe) and in the suburbs of a big city where I live. As long as you get a clear night, it doesn´t seem to matter for the moon.
6. There are phases when the moon is bigger because it is nearer to earth (called perigee). At that time it is around 10% bigger than when it is farthest away (apogee)
   
7. Don´t only photograph full moon. The craters show much more contrast when the moon is not full.

And don´t underestimate superzoom "compact" cameras. This image was shot with a Nikon p1000. It is very hard to impossible to get the same moon quality from a DSLR or mirrorless camera IMO (without expensive telescopes). I didn´t even zoom in all the way (the image is NOT cropped). The camera allows 3000mm equivalent zoom length (which makes the moon just slightly bigger than the frame), this was shot at 2200mm.

And here is the image straight out of camera.