Moon photos

[jjnsgy]

Good evening! Just joined the forum. Amateur/newbie and even less experienced than that.
Have an EOS80D. Rented Tamron SP 150-600 f/5-6.3 lens to photograph upcoming supermooon lunar eclipse. Took it for a spin today. No clouds in Houston. Great early evening to photograph the moon.

Using automatic mode (P), I was able to get a great photo of the moon. In an effort to get a bit more artistic, I tried to frame the moon by shooting through tree branches. I kept the lens at infinity and played with some of the settings (iso, f stop, speed, etc). I've attached 3 images. My question relates to the following: in order for me to get the moon in focus, the sky is much darker than it truly was. So, what can I do differently to lighten up the sky? Next is, why do the branches look more in focus and dominate the photo moreso than the moon even though I am at infinity? Is it just that the branches are at infinity too (I was 50 feet or so from the tree shooting up at about a 60 degree angle)?

Many thanks! Looking for tips to help with Wed.

 

[ac12]

Your photos are not displaying.

Use Manual mode. It is too easy to get metering messed up.
The moon is in full daylight, so you can use sunny 16, or luny 11. Then adjust up/down to get the exposure of the moon that you like.
I try to shoot at 1/1000 sec, to eliminate camera movement.

To lighten the sky, you expose longer. But then you risk over exposing the surface of the moon.
But why would you want to lighten the sky.
Your eye has a wider dynamic range than the camera's sensor, so you can see a greater tonal range from light to dark than the camera can capture. So the actual exposure in the camera is a compromise.

 

[jjnsgy]

Thanks for the response.

Sorry. Trying to post the images a different way. Image details available at Flikr link.

Many thanks!



IMG_0491 by jjnsgy, on Flickr

IMG_0488 by jjnsgy, on Flickr

IMG_0491 by jjnsgy, on Flickr

 

[weepete]

Shoot to expose for the moon and lighten the sky in post. I'd try by bringing up luminance of the blues. The branches look out of focus to me but if you were wanting more blur shoot at a wider aperture, get a windy day and use a longer shutter speed, or get some closer branches

 

[TCampbell]

Your photos are not displaying.

Use Manual mode. It is too easy to get metering messed up.
The moon is in full daylight, so you can use sunny 16, or luny 11. Then adjust up/down to get the exposure of the moon that you like.

This is true when he moon is not eclipsed (the "Looney 11" rule). During a lunar eclipse the moon is no longer in full sun because the Earth is blocking sunlight.

The brightness of the moon is continually changing as the eclipse progresses.

As the Moon enters the penumbra (the outer part of Earth's shadow cone) the Moon will start to get a little darker. Once it starts to enter the umbra (the inner part of Earth's shadow cone) the moon will start get a lot darker.

Assuming ISO 200 and f/8

The full moon would be 1/640th sec (this may need to be adjusted depending on atmospheric conditions and the altitude angle of the moon ... sometimes referred to as "extinction". For example, "with extinction" this exposure might be 1/500th.)

As the moon enters the penumbra, that exposure will increase
1/320th at about 15% eclipsed
1/160th at about 30%
1/80th at 60%
1/40th at 80%
1/20th at 90%
1/10th at 95%

Then once the moon is in the umbra, the exposures get MUCH longer and these are based on "Danjon values" (often abbreviated with the variable "L")
3 secs at Danjon L=4
13 secs at Danjon L=3
51 secs at Danjon L=2
1 minute at Danjon L=1
13 minutes at Danjon L=0

You can see where in totality you'll probably want to bump up the ISO.

 

[ac12]

Your pix shows the problem I stated.
#1 and 3 with the lighter sky has an overexposed moon. The moon is white and surface details are blown out.
#2 the moon is better exposed and has more visible detail, but with a darker sky.

BTW #1 and 3 are the same pix.

The branches look in focus because of contrast, black branch against the blue sky.

I would expose for the moon, so you don't blow out the details.

Blown highlight details are gone forever. So don't loose the highlight details.​

Then I would lighten the sky in post processing.

 

[jjnsgy]

Many thanks for all the replies. Will research and give it a go. Supermoon + eclipse!

 

[mcap1972]

I would get closer to the main subject.

 

[ac12]

My moon shot from Wed evening.
500mm f/8 mirror lens, ISO = 1000, shutter = 1/800 sec
I bracketed the shot +/- to get different exposures, so that I could pick the one that I preferred.
Original image was cropped, to offset the moon.