Shooting the moon

mitsugirly · Mar 8, 2009

I noticed several people have been shooting the moon lately...so I thought I would give it a shot tonight.

Here's what I came up with. I used a tripod but it was really windy, so I gave it the best I could (plus it was rainy out).

dcclark · Mar 8, 2009

Pretty darn good! Better focus than I've been able to achieve so far.

freeflydive · Mar 9, 2009

Very nice! I've been trying to capture the moon in Iraq (I'm currently deployed), but we've been experiencing cloud cover and sand storms each time we're close to a full moon.

Cheers,
Majdi

wesd · Mar 9, 2009

thats great especialy with the rain, you must have used a high shutter speed or have a really sturdy tripod to compansate for the wind.
Pease
Wes

mitsugirly · Mar 9, 2009

dcclark said:
Pretty darn good! Better focus than I've been able to achieve so far.

Thanks. I used a 100mm-300mm Minolta to capture.

freeflydive said:
Very nice! I've been trying to capture the moon in Iraq (I'm currently deployed), but we've been experiencing cloud cover and sand storms each time we're close to a full moon.

Cheers,
Majdi

I would actually like to capture a few shots of a half moon. I think they are neat. That's my next goal.

wesd said:
thats great especialy with the rain, you must have used a high shutter speed or have a really sturdy tripod to compansate for the wind.
Pease
Wes

Yes to both. ;o)

MBasile · Mar 9, 2009

great first tries! what shutter speed & f-stop were you shooting at?

dcclark · Mar 9, 2009

mitsugirly said:
I would actually like to capture a few shots of a half moon. I think they are neat. That's my next goal.

Yes, half-moons (or less) are really good, because they're lit from the side, which emphasizes the craters and cliffs. In fact, full moons are really quite flat and uninteresting in comparison!

mitsugirly · Mar 9, 2009

MBasile said:
great first tries! what shutter speed & f-stop were you shooting at?

My settings were 1/500 f8.0 ISO 100 5.6 on manual setting

astrostu · Mar 10, 2009

Are you sure of those settings? That moon looks awfully bright for an ISO100, f/8, 1/500-sec shot.

Battou · Mar 10, 2009

astrostu said:
Are you sure of those settings? That moon looks awfully bright for an ISO100, f/8, 1/500-sec shot.

I have had some horrid luck with shooting the moon but I agree with that accessment. I was underexposing at 1/125 at F/8 or F/11 on ASA 200 film.

slvr92 · Mar 10, 2009

Wow, that seriously looks really beautiful! You can see the details... just amazing!

dj741 · Mar 10, 2009

I like your moon photos, makes me want to give it a try.

mitsugirly · Mar 10, 2009

astrostu said:
Are you sure of those settings? That moon looks awfully bright for an ISO100, f/8, 1/500-sec shot.

I took 8 shots that night (plus about 10 that were a blurry white that I discarded right away), so I don't remember what the settings where but when I look at the pictures (by putting the mouse over the picture and it gives me the settings) that's what it told me. So, I don't know.

I did lighten the entire picture some in post processing, so maybe that's what happened.

I do have a couple pictures that I took (which are darker than this) that the settings were on ISO 1600 F8 1/4000. But I didn't use it. I just took the best one that I liked to postprocess.

(I just put the picture in lightroom and looked at the histogram with the settings and yes, it says ISO 100, 300mm f/8.0 1/500 sec. So these are the settings that I used for sure).

swmocity · Mar 10, 2009

very nice

astrostu · Mar 10, 2009

mitsugirly said:
I did lighten the entire picture some in post processing, so maybe that's what happened.

(I just put the picture in lightroom and looked at the histogram with the settings and yes, it says ISO 100, 300mm f/8.0 1/500 sec. So these are the settings that I used for sure).

That would account for it. Needing to lighten it means you should have a longer shutter speed. At f/8 (ISO100), I would suggest you at least double the length of your exposure.