my first shots of the moon.

John_05 · Dec 13, 2006

ive been wanting to try to get a couple nice shots of the moon, and after getting a new Sigma 70-300 F4-5.6 lens, i decided to give it a try. when we finally had a nice clear night, i went out and shot these pics.

i was told that trying to get decent shots of the moon shooting from the middle of a city under street lights would be difficult, but i think these came out ok. the first 2 shots i took were nothing but bright white blurry circles, so i went upstairs and got my tripod and tried again. this is the result.

as always, thanks for looking and for any C&C/advice anyone can offer. :thumbup:

lostprophet · Dec 13, 2006

I like them, might have to have a go at moon shots one day, I mean night

V.Alonso · Dec 13, 2006

very nice... i have had no luck with moon shots.

oldnavy170 · Dec 13, 2006

I love moons shots. You have a very nice moon there!

John_05 · Dec 14, 2006

thanks everyone. :thumbup:

Mole · Dec 14, 2006

Those are pretty good. How did you keep the noise down? Did you use PS noise filter or something?

LaFoto · Dec 14, 2006

Congratulations!
My attempts don't come close!

CMan · Dec 14, 2006

Wow...I tried shooting the moon, but my results were not even anywhere remotely close to yours. Good work.

John_05 · Dec 14, 2006

Mole said:
Those are pretty good. How did you keep the noise down? Did you use PS noise filter or something?

thanks. :thumbup:

i didnt use any filters on the pics. i dont have Photoshop installed on my computer anymore. its a little out of my price range, and after a discussion i had with a very good friend of mine, i changed my mind about using software i didnt pay for.

the first couple shots i took were blurred and blown completely out. after getting my tripod, i also attached the circular polariser i have to the lens, but the next couple shots didnt look too good either. i took the polariser off, changed the aperture to f8 and experimented with shutter speeds a little. if i remember right, setting the shutter speed to 20 was still too blown out, so i stepped it up to 100, and they were a tad dark. i turned it down to 80, and got the shots i posted. i was going to try using PaintShop Pro to sharpen them up a little but i liked them as-is, so i left them alone except for resizing a couple to post here.

LaFoto said:
Congratulations!
My attempts don't come close!

thank you. :wink:

other than being busy with other things, ive been doing alot of shooting, and hopefully a bit of learning. i just love taking pictures, so i take shots of anything and everything that catches my eye. i think its helped me learn a bit. my friend thats been trying to teach me more about photography had threatened to remove the mode dial from my camera so i couldnt use anything but manual, so rather than have a "deformed" camera, i leave it in manual now and just experiment.

CMan said:
Wow...I tried shooting the moon, but my results were not even anywhere remotely close to yours. Good work.

thanks. :thumbup:

like i said, the first couple shots i took were nothing but blurred white spots, so experimenting and using the tripod helped alot. it only took a few shots to figure out the settings i needed to get the shots i wanted. i was pretty happy to see that the "cheap" Sigma lens i bought was able to make a nice picture. a few people told me to save my money and buy a better lens, but im too impatient for that. for using a $120 70-300mm lens, i think it worked out pretty well.

thanks again for all the comments. seeing other people appreciate the shots im taking now is great motivation for me to shoot more, and post more.