Posted by Lindy Martin on January 28, 2010 at 7:51 PM
I have been trying to get a good detailed shot of the moon but have failed each time .
Any advice would be appreciated. Full moon coming tomorrow and all my shots this week have flunked out. I will be using a tripod with ballhead and a nikon d300 with the 300 F4 or 70-200 f2.8.
Thanks in advance,
Posted by Mark Stahlke on January 28, 2010 at 8:13 PM
Your equipment should be capable of producing decent shots of the moon. What kind of shots are you trying to get? What's wrong with your previous efforts? How did they "flunk out"?
Cheers,
Mark
Posted by Lindy Martin on January 28, 2010 at 8:19 PM
Thanks Mark, the equipment is great but my settings are wrong. Either I get a dark "orange" moon with some detail or a washed out bright ball with absolutely no detail. I have tried manual settings at 1/250 at f9 at about 250mm. The shot I want is a detailed silver grey moon like I see with the naked eye - just a lot closer!
Posted by Lindy Martin on January 28, 2010 at 8:25 PM
Thanks Mark, the equipment is great but my settings are wrong. Either I get a dark "orange" moon with some detail or a washed out bright ball with absolutely no detail. I have tried manual settings at 1/250 at f9 at about 250mm. The shot I want is a detailed silver grey moon like I see with the naked eye - just a lot closer!
Posted by David Bostedo on January 28, 2010 at 8:42 PM
Lindy - In cases like that why not just "chimp" the histogram on your camera until you get a good exposure based on this histogram (preferably at the upper end of the histogram to minimize noise)? That will ensure that you've captured everything, and then the proper levels can be set on the computer.
Are you shooting RAW or JPG? I ask because I don't know that I'd trust auto white balance - that could be a cause of some color casts. Are you using Live view to check focus too? That can help a lot.
I'd also use the 300 for sure, since even with that (450mm equivalent) the moon is pretty small in the shot. The shot above I took a few years ago, on my old Canon S2 IS P&S. It's ISO 100, f/8.0, 1/80s from a tripod. It's at an equivalent of 432 mm. This is a pretty big crop too.
Posted by Lindy Martin on January 28, 2010 at 8:48 PM
Thanks Mark, the equipment is great but my settings are wrong. Either I get a dark "orange" moon with some detail or a washed out bright ball with absolutely no detail. I have tried manual settings at 1/250 at f9 at about 250mm. The shot I want is a detailed silver grey moon like I see with the naked eye - just a lot closer!
Posted by Luke Ormand on January 28, 2010 at 9:04 PM
Lindy:
Essentially the same question was recently posted, this should be of help to you:
One thing you may need to do is dial in some negative exposure compensation. For my moon shot, I had to dial it down to -4 EC!
Posted by David Bostedo on January 28, 2010 at 10:15 PM
Luke (and Lindy) - The exposure compensation only matters if you're not shooting in manual. I'd instead try going manual. Set your aperture for your lenses' sharpest spot (probably somewhere around f/8.0) and then adjust the shutter speed to get the exposure you want.
Posted by Luke Ormand on January 28, 2010 at 10:21 PM
I was shooting in Aperture Priority, which I should have noted. And of course, should have been shooting in Manual anyway - so thank you for pointing that out David!
- Luke
Posted by freda kraus on January 29, 2010 at 6:22 AM
I have found this site very helpful. Just change the setttings to fit the phase, placement in the sky and conditions. Adjust f stop and iso and it will tell you the speed to use.
http://www.adidap.com/2006/12/06/moon-exposure-calculator/
Posted by Gene Lugo on January 29, 2010 at 6:59 AM
Try a bracket of F8 at 1/(ISO) less 2 stops and less 1 stop (equivalent of F11 and F16). So for ISO 250 you would use 1/1250, 1/500, 1/1000, daylight white balance. I haven't done this in a while but that's what I remember - more than likely the 1/500 would be correct.
Posted by Jim Bullard on January 29, 2010 at 7:45 AM
Although the moon is in a dark sky and whatever other light there is is probably a different color temperature, the moon itself is in bright sun. Use daylight color balance and "Sunny day 16" exposure [shutter speed = ISO with f/16].
Posted by Bob Maynard on January 29, 2010 at 8:35 AM
I got some great ones last full moon with my d80 and the 70 - 300 with a doubler. I shot 1/150 in brackets with manual focusing and white balance on auto. I shot brackets from +3 to -3. Don't recall which of those was the keeper.
The light from the moon is reflected light from the sun. Use 'spot' mode on your camera with daylight color balance and then dial in +1.3 or +1.6 exposure compensation. The resulting exposure should give nice detail in the disk with a nice glow.
First set your camera to Manual. ISO 400 is good. The best setting is "Sunny 16" plus one stop. The reason its an added stop and not straight "Sunny 16" is because the actual color of the moon itself is closer to black than a neutral shade and thus requires more sunlight. Shoot in Raw. For long lenses a tripod with cable release is recommended, but not necessarily with short lenses.
Try using the lowest ISO you can to get an image that you can blow up bigger before it looks crappy. You can then get a much larger and sharp image than your lens will give you alone. When all else is failing and you are using a digital camera, try MANY things one adjustment at a time! Keep the speed up as the moon is NOT a stationary target! Some folks won't blow up their images saying they want to stay "pure". Not sure what this really means in photography considering in the film days, we had no choice but to use an "enlarger" to print our negatives and slides!!
I just got my Nikon D300s camera about two months ago and the Moon has been one of my sought after subjects. I sucessfully use my 300mm ed-if F4.5 AI-S lens. I set my meter on Spot (smallest) and then set my exposure setting to -2. It's really important to get the spot exposure exactly on the brightest part of the Moon. I don't even have to tripod the camera as when the ISO is set from 400 to 800, my shutter speeds for a moon that is at least one-half full is usually over 1/1000. I also set my Fstop to 11, the sweet spot. F8 is O.K. My best Moon shots are when the camera saves them as TIFFs or jpgs. For some reason my RAW photos seem flat. The shots turns out really nice. I have attached one.
Jeff Seldomridge
Curtis, Washington
Posted by Lindy Martin on January 30, 2010 at 8:26 AM
Thanks everyone, lots of great advice that I will continue to try out! Much appreciated.
Posted by Youssef Ismail on February 23, 2010 at 2:27 AM
Lindy,
I am late to this thread, but the moon is easy. As Preston said it is lit by the sun, front lit in fact. So you could use the good old sunny f/16 rule + 1 to 1.5 stops brigther. The sunny f/16 rule - set apertuer to f/16, shutter to 1/ISO so e.g if you are at ISO 100, the f/16 at 1/100 or the equivilent, but then sice the moon is not middle gray but light gray open up 1 stop to 1.5 stops either manually or with your exposure compensation setting. I started out in photography photgrpahing the moon and do so at least once a month, this formula works every time. Use the longest lens you can get - you want the moon big. Good luck.
Discussion
18 repliesAny advice would be appreciated. Full moon coming tomorrow and all my shots this week have flunked out. I will be using a tripod with ballhead and a nikon d300 with the 300 F4 or 70-200 f2.8.
Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Mark
Are you shooting RAW or JPG? I ask because I don't know that I'd trust auto white balance - that could be a cause of some color casts. Are you using Live view to check focus too? That can help a lot.
I'd also use the 300 for sure, since even with that (450mm equivalent) the moon is pretty small in the shot. The shot above I took a few years ago, on my old Canon S2 IS P&S. It's ISO 100, f/8.0, 1/80s from a tripod. It's at an equivalent of 432 mm. This is a pretty big crop too.
Essentially the same question was recently posted, this should be of help to you:
shooting the moon
One thing you may need to do is dial in some negative exposure compensation. For my moon shot, I had to dial it down to -4 EC!
- Luke
http://www.adidap.com/2006/12/06/moon-exposure-calculator/
Also, check out
http://photo.net/photodb/member-photos?user_id=592002
Bob Maynard
Boulder, CO
The light from the moon is reflected light from the sun. Use 'spot' mode on your camera with daylight color balance and then dial in +1.3 or +1.6 exposure compensation. The resulting exposure should give nice detail in the disk with a nice glow.
-P
I just got my Nikon D300s camera about two months ago and the Moon has been one of my sought after subjects. I sucessfully use my 300mm ed-if F4.5 AI-S lens. I set my meter on Spot (smallest) and then set my exposure setting to -2. It's really important to get the spot exposure exactly on the brightest part of the Moon. I don't even have to tripod the camera as when the ISO is set from 400 to 800, my shutter speeds for a moon that is at least one-half full is usually over 1/1000. I also set my Fstop to 11, the sweet spot. F8 is O.K. My best Moon shots are when the camera saves them as TIFFs or jpgs. For some reason my RAW photos seem flat. The shots turns out really nice. I have attached one.
Jeff Seldomridge
Curtis, Washington
I am late to this thread, but the moon is easy. As Preston said it is lit by the sun, front lit in fact. So you could use the good old sunny f/16 rule + 1 to 1.5 stops brigther. The sunny f/16 rule - set apertuer to f/16, shutter to 1/ISO so e.g if you are at ISO 100, the f/16 at 1/100 or the equivilent, but then sice the moon is not middle gray but light gray open up 1 stop to 1.5 stops either manually or with your exposure compensation setting. I started out in photography photgrpahing the moon and do so at least once a month, this formula works every time. Use the longest lens you can get - you want the moon big. Good luck.