Why does my moon look like the sun?I took this

RockDawg · May 5, 2008

I took this shoot a couple nights ago. My wife came home from work and thought the moon looked pretty and thought I should take a couple photos of it. Even though I knew neither my 18-55 kit lens nor the local landscape/scene in front of my house would provide a very compelling shot, I figured it would still be good practice. I was surprised at the results and was baffled that the moon looked more like the sun in my shots. I used a tripod and tried a variety of exposures, but the moon was very similar in all of them. Why did it turn out this way? What should I have done differently?

P.S. Sorry about the thread title.

croomaniac · May 5, 2008

i do think that it is because of your shutter speed? the longer the shutter speed, the more lights came in..

MarcusM · May 5, 2008

I learned (on this forum actually - LaFoto, please let me know if I'm explaining this correctly!) that the moon is a lot brighter than you probably think - I think if you are using matrix metering, you will not get correct values for exposing the moon correctly and it will be overexposed because the rest of the scene is really dark which the Matrix metering is taking into account.

I think you need to try spot metering or just increase your shutter speed.

kundalini · May 5, 2008

As above, I think your exposure was too long.

Try settings like (going on memory) ISO 100 or 200, f/8 to f/11, shutter at 1/15 to 1/40. Oh and turn autofocus off once you have focus set.

The moon is very bright and moves at a pretty good clip, so do not meter off of it but rather to the side. You can also take and merge one shot metered just to the side with one shot metered for the black sky (I think).

RockDawg · May 5, 2008

So you're both saying that you think the moon is overexposed? The rest is pretty close to what it was actually was like that night. I wish I would've kept them, but I had some much darker (lower exposure) where the moon was still "shining".

skieur · May 5, 2008

The moon requires a high shutterspeed of around 1/125 sec at f.4 because it is much brighter than the foreground. You are trying to do the impossible. Combining both the foreground and moon with proper exposure requires some creativity.

skieur

prodigy2k7 · May 5, 2008

think of it as a backlit background

MarcusM · May 5, 2008

Yes, I think the moon is overexposed and that's what the others are saying too.

kundalini · May 5, 2008

skieur said:
The moon requires a high shutterspeed of around 1/125 sec at f.4 because it is much brighter than the foreground.

My memory sucks tonight. Thanks skier for the correction. I went back and looked at a few of mine and shutterspeed was in the 1/60 to 1/250 range and aperature from f/5.6 to f/11 (1.7 TC attached to 300mm f/4)

Awesome photo to boot!

Mav · May 5, 2008

Use a lot of negative exposure compensation if using matrix metering, or just use spot metering on the moon. Problem solved.

Early · May 5, 2008

You have to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the movement of the moon. I know that's a problem if you want to maintain detail in the trees. I think the moon is actually equal to daylight when is comes to exposure, or at least close. That would mean about 1/400 of a sec at f16 and iso 400.

davebmck · May 5, 2008

I took a number of shots of a full moon a couple of months ago and was surprised at how over exposed they were. I tried again the next night and the way I finally got decent exposures was to ignore the meter and look at the histogram.

Senor Hound · May 5, 2008

Its not necessary to go full manual. The camera can still help you out even in a difficult photo, but you just have to know how to make it work for you.

Switch your camera to spot metering, and put the moon in the center of your viewfinder. Press the shutter down halfway to get the correct exposure setting, and then move your camera (with the button still pressed halfway) to where you really want it to be. Then take your photo.

The moon is insanely high-contrast. You're taking a nearly pitch black sky and putting something that's as bright as a low-watt lightbulb right in the middle of it. Cameras have problems with this when they try to figure it out on their own, but if you use the spot metering (in this instance), the camera better understands what you are trying to do.

Edited to add: I would try and use a small aperture also. The moon looks flat, but since its so far away you really need to pick a higher f-stop to grab the definition out of the craters. Also, if you go out anywhere from one-quarter to three-quarters moon, you will get better definition from the moon, due to the Sun side lighting it.

PaulBennett · May 5, 2008

Sounds like a good exercise for HDR. How about some bracketing to favor the moon and recombine images.

TamiyaGuy · May 6, 2008

Yep, the moon is overexposed. It's really amazing just how bright the moon is. When I went out to take a couple of photos of it, the EXIF data was 1/400th sec at F/5.6 and ISO 200. Seeing as this is so extreme, the only way to solve this would be an HDR image, with the moon one maybe even -3 EV compensated.

Still, I think the photo has a really good effect; the "diffused" style makes it look like a dark & mysterious daytime...