Shooting the moon problems

[Blake.Oney]

I've never tried it before and I just went out and shot at 200mm and through the viewfinder I could actually see a lot of the craters and detail pretty clearly. When I took the picture it was I guess overexposed. The moon was just a white filled circle. I adjusted aperture, shutter speed, and iso and got a few different shots. I also adjusted flash and exposure comp. None of them were really different. I couldn't even bring it out in ACR. What am I missing that I need to do?

 

[RobNZ]

Heya Blake, would help if you told us what settings your using?

My specs to get this shot.

Tripod to stabilise camera, hand held at this focal length is almost impossible.

Shutter speed : 1/160th
ISO: 100
Aperture: /f7.1
Lens: Canon 300mm F4 L USM
Kenko 1.4x Pro DGX Teleconverter
Canon 500D
Shot in RAW
Live View on (doubles as mirror lock up?), focus preset manually.
Remote shutter release, I did as much as I could to stablise the shot at every point of the process.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x914.

 

[tnvol]

I got this one the other night. I just kept adjusting my aperture until it looked good. It's not as sharp as I would like but it was the best of the night.

ISO 200
300 mm
f /25
1/15 sec

 

[Blake.Oney]

First I tried it at f4 then I went to around 7, then to 11. I started with shutter speed of like 1/3 on aperture priority, then adjusted to try and get a longer shutter speed. All of them turned out like this

This is unedited, but I adjusted exposure, contrast and everything in ACR and it just stayed the same.

 

[ajkramer87]

A lot of good threads all ready about this. Although I'm pretty sure you want to shoot more around 1/125 at least. Moon is really bright as you can tell from you picture.

 

[lordfly]

I think the problem is the camera is letting too much light into the sensor, causing the blowouts. It's probably thinking that because the night sky is nearly black, it has to let a ton of light in (I think most cameras default to wanting a middle gray as an exposure point?). Go into full-manual mode and increase shutter speed sequentially until you get something that shows some detail.

 

[LCARSx32]

Take it off Aperture priority and into full manual. Set your ISO to it's lowest setting. Pick the aperture setting that gives your lens the most sharpness (usually somewhere between f/5.6 and f/8, depending on your lens). Your shutter speed will vary based on your aperture and ISO, but it's going to be fast. At least 1/100. Most likely 1/160 to 1/250. You should be able to tell on your LCD how your exposure is doing.

Like Darrel likes to point out; the moon is lit by direct sunlight. So you have to treat it like something lit by direct sunlight. You won't be able to trust your meter. It's averaging the shadows and hightlights to expose for middle gray, but since you're shooting something in the night sky, the meter is waaaaay off.

Give it another shot and see how it goes.

 

[Blake.Oney]

Lcars, I was out trying again while you replied. After I though about it and read some of the replies I went out and shot the first shot at f4.5 at 1/160. I then switched to f11 at 1/160 at ISO 200.

Next time I'll shoot at 100, but I was satisfied with this. Thanks everyone. This is the first time in a very long time that I was stumped and it was soooo aggravating. I had never tried a moon shot, though.

 

[filmshooter]

I tend to shoot the moon as if I am shooting in very bright light, like noon on a sunny day and it seems so work out at least half decent, I shoot film and sometimes forget what settings I was using for which shot by the time I get the prints. I should start writing that down aha =/

 

[Cheesyman]

i got this one a while back when i had my sigma 70-300mm lens

the settings were:

shutter speed - 1/250
Aperture - f/11
ISO - 400
auto white balance
at 300mm
+ and i didn't have my camera set on a tripod, was handheld

 

[KmH]

Yo! Word up homey!

Try using the search feature once in a while:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/beyond-basics/147712-lunar-moon-photography-guide-astrostu.html

 

[Leilameat]

I was moon shooting last night. First try, it took a while adjusting.

I did:
shutter speed: 1/50
Aperture: 7.1
ISO: I think 100 or 200... No greater than 400. XD

Keep it really steady. And focus manually.
I couldn't get a very good shot because my lens only goes up to 135, so I had to crop.

 

[smlblk396]

Lcars, I was out trying again while you replied. After I though about it and read some of the replies I went out and shot the first shot at f4.5 at 1/160. I then switched to f11 at 1/160 at ISO 200.

Next time I'll shoot at 100, but I was satisfied with this. Thanks everyone. This is the first time in a very long time that I was stumped and it was soooo aggravating. I had never tried a moon shot, though.

Try waiting till Wensday,Thursday, or Friday the moon will be as close to the earth as its going to get. This week will be the harvest moon.

 

[smlblk396]

RobNZ the moon taken from where I live in Kentucky is upside down from you the craters are on the bottom here

 

[MohaimenK]

OK here are a few shots I taken. I didn't do any PP so I just wanted to show you exactly how they are from the camera. All were shot at 200mm using the 70-200 2.8L and you can pretty much get the references of what they'd look like w/ different settings.