Moon shot

Dylan · Dec 7, 2006

We had a pretty good moon out the other night so I tried to get some pictures. I've never shot any celestial bodies at night so I am unsure what are the best settings. I had my camera mounted on a tripod and took several long exposures. When I got the prints back I could see a very prominent grain and the moon was not especially bright. I'm shooting with Fuji film (400 speed) and a Canon Eos Elan camera. Can anyone recomend better settings or better film for this kind of shot?

Patrice · Dec 7, 2006

Looking back over similar posts the general direction is to expose for a sunlit object and use as long a lens as you can get.

emogirl · Dec 7, 2006

exposure is usually around f8 & 1/250 ....surprisingly fast, often people think because it is dark outside you need a long exposure, but the moon is very bright and you need the opposite or you just get a big glowing ball!

Orgnoi1 · Dec 7, 2006

emogirl is pretty much right on... I shoot ISO100, 1/125, f11...

PetersCreek · Dec 7, 2006

The "Sunny 16" rule usually works for the Moon, too...give or take a stop.

bla · Dec 8, 2006

Maybe your grain is due to the 400 ISO, but I can't really confirm this. I fail to understand why the moon wasn't very bright despite your long exposures though... Maybe your film is too old? Eh... Someone else may be more informed on the subject.

Note that long exposures really don't suit the moon, you tend to get big blobs of light in the sky due to the brightness of it. Or at least, I tended to.

Dylan · Dec 8, 2006

Thanks for all of the helpful advice. I'll try again with the settings recomended. Regarding the film, it's pretty new. I'm guessing that the grain might have been a byproduct of the long exposure because the rest of the shots with that roll came out ok. I'm gonna try again tonight and see what I get.

Flash Harry · Dec 8, 2006

The grain is due to your film speed, go with iso 100 for night shots you want less grainy, although fast film can be more artsy depending on how you wish the finished work to appear.