I just saw the news about the lunar eclipse... I know almost nothing about night photography, or shooting the moon with landscapes. I've tried a bit before, but it hasn't worked out quite like I want.
My first question would be, how do I get the right exposure for the moon and sky? I'm sure during an eclipse there will be a strong shadow on the moon's surface, and it will be difficult to get the whole dynamic range of the moon/sky in one shot.
Nathan, You can take a look at Floris' article here, http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0509/fv0509-1.html. Great intro article to night photography. Not sure if there is anything on the moon here though.
From the last lunar eclipse, I recall recommedations of about 1/100sec shutter speed to prevent movement of the moon during exposure when trying to fill the frame mostly with moon. Spot meter on the moon.
For including landscape, you will likely need to make two exposures and blend together in order to get the moon and land both exposed properly.
Great! Thanks Doug/Dean for all the info. Actually, I've always wanted to get into astro photography, so the article was very helpful.
I do have another question... How do you get the stars in focus? Even if I slide the manual focus ring to infinity, they are still blurry. I know I'm off the original subject already...
In my experience, infinity rarely works for getting stars into focus.
Best focus seems to occur just a wee bit short of infinity. Remember to set your lens focus on the infinity hash line and not the infinity symbol itself.
You can try LiveView, although I haven't had much success with that method. In the end, I focus on any object on the distant horizon while it's still light and then check some test shots on the star field for sharpness, then tweak focus to get optimum sharpness.
If you want to shoot star trails, consider getting a cheap ($30!) Canon knock off intervalometer from Amazon to help automate the process. It'll work while you sleep.
Here's a fine tutorial titled 'Star Trails & Night Photography' that may help you. There are moon photography tutorials all over the Web, too.
Nathan, it's definitely doable with a bit of forethought. I got some very pleasing results from last December's eclipse. It looks like this one too will be happening as the moon is setting, which is very good news if you're wanting to include landscape elements. It'll probably still be pretty high at full eclipse, so you may want to plan on close zooms or a composite sequence for that period. But as it sinks lower and the sky behind you gets brighter, the opportunities for incorporating the landscape really start to open up. This is only a partial, though, so the effect will be getting less dramatic as the moon sinks.
One lesson I learned in December is that you want to be pretty far from any landscape feature you're hoping to include. I scouted my location the night before by the full moonlight, and quickly realized that any focal length long enough to do justice to the moon would be way too long include a decent amount of the peak I had in mind. So I drove to another spot further away that I had in mind as a plan B: glad I scouted!
Here's a shot 25 minutes before moonset at 108mm (35mm equivalent). The monolith in the distance is about 16 miles away. And here's one a little later, 15 minutes till moonset, at 225mm. Both of these are single exposures, thanks to the dawn light behind me. I hope these help give you some sense of the timings, locations and focal lengths that might work for you.
Discussion
6 repliesMy first question would be, how do I get the right exposure for the moon and sky? I'm sure during an eclipse there will be a strong shadow on the moon's surface, and it will be difficult to get the whole dynamic range of the moon/sky in one shot.
Sorry, can someone give him a live link.
For including landscape, you will likely need to make two exposures and blend together in order to get the moon and land both exposed properly.
I do have another question... How do you get the stars in focus? Even if I slide the manual focus ring to infinity, they are still blurry. I know I'm off the original subject already...
Best focus seems to occur just a wee bit short of infinity. Remember to set your lens focus on the infinity hash line and not the infinity symbol itself.
You can try LiveView, although I haven't had much success with that method. In the end, I focus on any object on the distant horizon while it's still light and then check some test shots on the star field for sharpness, then tweak focus to get optimum sharpness.
If you want to shoot star trails, consider getting a cheap ($30!) Canon knock off intervalometer from Amazon to help automate the process. It'll work while you sleep.
Here's a fine tutorial titled 'Star Trails & Night Photography' that may help you. There are moon photography tutorials all over the Web, too.
One lesson I learned in December is that you want to be pretty far from any landscape feature you're hoping to include. I scouted my location the night before by the full moonlight, and quickly realized that any focal length long enough to do justice to the moon would be way too long include a decent amount of the peak I had in mind. So I drove to another spot further away that I had in mind as a plan B: glad I scouted!
Here's a shot 25 minutes before moonset at 108mm (35mm equivalent). The monolith in the distance is about 16 miles away. And here's one a little later, 15 minutes till moonset, at 225mm. Both of these are single exposures, thanks to the dawn light behind me. I hope these help give you some sense of the timings, locations and focal lengths that might work for you.
Jackson---Thanks for some great advice I would have never thought of. BTW, those were some nice images. Really enjoyed them.