Lunar (Moon) Photography Guide, by Astrostu

[rubbertree]

According to NASA, tonight's full moon will appear bigger and brighter than any other full moon in 2009. So I guess I shouldn't have said it will be the closest tonight in 2009.

 

[Akoz]

kind of disapointed my area is over cast.
hopefully someone on here can snap a great shot tonight.

 

[craig]

Mostly off topic, but I thought you might be interested in this article and photo. I trust you have seen it already. Just thought I would throw it out there.


Stunning photographs of landmark captured over six-month period - Telegraph


Love & Bass

 

[12 Wyoming]

Thank you much for your time in putting this guide together. I tried in vein last night to get a good pic of the Moon and Venus. I really want to get good at this, but it will take a different lens for starters. A 135 mm isn't cutting it, And I need to learn this new camera. Canon 50D.

Thanks again!

 

[astrostu]

Hey folks - version 2.2 is out! I've fixed up the grammar a bit, and adjusted some formatting to emphasize the more important points and hopefully make it a bit easier to follow.

The two main changes are that, first, I added a new section to the "Pet Peeves" part -- the "Sunny 16" and "Looney 11" rules. Gah!! DON'T USE THEM!! While the Looney 11 one will probably get you a decent exposure, it completely ignores the idea of using your lens' sharpest aperture (as most people use it, anyway). The second change is that I tried to make the last page, the "Summary," more of a, "If you are only going to print 1 page of this guide, print this one!!" I tried to make it into a quick check-list for folks to use in the field.

 

[Garbz]

Good summary page!

Though I think you're taking the "rules" a bit too seriously. Mostly it's worth remembering Sunny-16 and Lunny-11 for the sake of three clicks right on the thumb wheel = three clicks left on the index finger and volah I'm at f/8 with double the shutter speed. Good to remember as a starting spot, but I don't think I've ever actually seen someone shoot at f/16 on an APS-C camera

 

[astrostu]

Good summary page!

Though I think you're taking the "rules" a bit too seriously. Mostly it's worth remembering Sunny-16 and Lunny-11 for the sake of three clicks right on the thumb wheel = three clicks left on the index finger and volah I'm at f/8 with double the shutter speed. Good to remember as a starting spot, but I don't think I've ever actually seen someone shoot at f/16 on an APS-C camera

Unfortunately, I have. Many times on this forum. I've even seen people give feedback advising that they really should have shot it at f/22.

 

[Overread14 2]

Yep I've seen it to - moreso more recently than before, but that might just be because I am reading more macro threads. But yes more people are trying to push to f22 and beyond - the really sad part is that some appear not to even noticed the softness appearing in their work as a result.

 

[Stosh]

Nice write-up astrostu. Now when is your write-up for stacking coming out? I believe I've just about mastered exposure. Now I'd like to take the next step and learn how to use Registax. I have it and all I can say is "Holy overwhelming Batman." Know of any good tutorials written for hi res camera stacking techniques?

 

[astrostu]

Yep I've seen it to - moreso more recently than before, but that might just be because I am reading more macro threads. But yes more people are trying to push to f22 and beyond - the really sad part is that some appear not to even noticed the softness appearing in their work as a result.

It's been like this for the past year or so (part of the reason why I wrote the guide in the first place). I think it's due to the changing demographics of pros to more amateurs who think they know what they're doing when they're really not taking everything into account ... but that's just my general sense and should only be taken as an anecdote.

Nice write-up astrostu. Now when is your write-up for stacking coming out? I believe I've just about mastered exposure. Now I'd like to take the next step and learn how to use Registax. I have it and all I can say is "Holy overwhelming Batman." Know of any good tutorials written for hi res camera stacking techniques?

Thanks, Stosh. Stacking photos for the moon is really not necessary, in my rarely humble opinion, but if you mean it for things like star trails as opposed to a single long exposure, or something like planets, then all I'll say is that I have been passively working on a guide but I have not finished it nor do I have an ETA.

 

[Stosh]

in my rarely humble opinion

LOL
Actually, I was talking about moon shots. Since perfecting planetary photography requires stacking, I guess I assumed lunar photography could benefit from the same thing. I have enough resolution that atmospheric seeing is effecting my shots and I'm also oversampling assuming stacking would help there too. I guess waiting for a perfect still night is one option, but that seems to be an extremely rare event here.

Can Registax even handle hi res files (21 MP from a 5d II)? Maybe I can use it solely to pick the best shot?

 

[Garbz]

Yep I've seen it to - moreso more recently than before, but that might just be because I am reading more macro threads. But yes more people are trying to push to f22 and beyond - the really sad part is that some appear not to even noticed the softness appearing in their work as a result.

Well macro is a world of it's own. Half the time the camera reports an effective aperture that is different in diffraction characteristics to what the lens actually stops down to. For instance my Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 goes from f/4.5 to f/57 (yes that's right f/57) at 1:1. However at f/57 it is no less sharp than at f/22 at infinity focus.

With macros there is a legit claim to setting apertures higher than f/22 on the camera. Softness appears to start at around f/32 at 1:1 on my lens, compared with around f/14 at infinity focus.

 

[Overread14 2]

ahh before we got confused I think this is a nikon/canon difference showing here as well Garbz. I seem to recall that nikon and canon cameras report the apertures differently, and that when working with macro lenses at their closest magnification this difference shows up.
Its a confusing point because canon macro lenses don't change aperture as they focus closer - the light entering is still the same as for the nikons and the effective aperture is smaller, but on teh camera it still reads as f2.8. I think for hte nikons you go down to something like f5.6 when wide open?
Its tricky for me to go any further in explaining as I really don't know enough about what is going on.

 

[Garbz]

Yeah f/4.5 wide open. But this is a reporting thing only. The camera still determines the exposure based on the light entering, the aperture indication is only used for the smarts behind the metering system.

It's similar to teleconverters. Nikons will display the effective aperture, while the Kenko's leave it unchanged. The results look the same, just different data in the ExIF.

Just raised it as a note, that some macro users may quite legitimately be talking about using f/22 or higher.

 

[astrostu]

Alrighty folks, a new version is posted. Updates in this version (2.3) include minor grammatical changes, a new addition on focusing with Live View, two new sub-sections in the Things to Avoid, and an updated Histogram image of what your moon shot "should" look like.