Taking pictures of the Moon

[RonFrank]

The full moon is basically a sunlight exposure (it after all is lit by the sun). So if you follow the sunny 16 rule, then exposure would be at ISO 100 1/100 at F16 which will likely underexpose a bit, but that would be a starting point.

I have some photo's of the blood moon I shot a couple years back at home. I'll dig them out and post.

The best way IMO to get a huge moon with a good foreground is to photoshop it. This is for two reasons, first you are almost going to certainly blow out the moon if one expects to get anything (even incadescent light from buildings) exposued properly in the foreground, and second when you use a wide angle lens to get in a good amount of foreground, the moon grows tiny.

In the days before PS I got some good environmental moon shots but it was generally using multiple flash shots to help illuminate the foreground. It was basically an excercise in wasting several rolls of film to get just one or two good shots, and in the end one still had to burn the moon, and dodge the foreground in most cases.

 

[justleesa]

now that is beautiful....love the movement of the water

 

[Cacia]

note to leesa "sunny 16 rule".....nice St. Thomas moon! leesa, I just told JB in Iraq that you were driving around last night looking for a good place to "shoot the moon", ha ha.."shoot the moon".

 

[Jamdiver]

Most of the advice here is pretty spot on.
2 identical pictures with different exposures, most of the really nice moon shots that i've seen all over the net are composite pictures so to speak.

By the way Leesa, were you referring to the little astrophotography section on Canon's website?

Think it's very difficult to take a good moon shot with a point & shoot camera, which is obviously not what you have..

My attempt.

 

[ScubaTexan]

On an overnight flight to London one summer, I saw a full moon at about 35,000 feet, but my camera was in my carry-on bag in the overhead compartment and I couldn't get to it... :116:

 

[justleesa]

The full moon is basically a sunlight exposure (it after all is lit by the sun). So if you follow the sunny 16 rule, then exposure would be at ISO 100 1/100 at F16 which will likely underexpose a bit, but that would be a starting point.

Thanks for the tip Ron!!!! I'll be trying it out next time

I just told JB in Iraq that you were driving around last night looking for a good place to "shoot the moon", ha ha.."shoot the moon".

:rofl: bet he got a laugh out of that

By the way Leesa, were you referring to the little astrophotography section on Canon's website?

Think it's very difficult to take a good moon shot with a point & shoot camera, which is obviously not what you have..

Nice mood in your pictures Jam and yes, that is what I was referring to.

You're right, a good moon shot would be hard to do with a P&S camera, I upgraded to a 5D a while back. It is my first DSLR (first any kind of SLR for that matter) and I am still getting the hang of it.

and I couldn't get to it...

:bawling:

 

[KidK9]

WOW! I've tried a couple of times at moon photography, but I'm no good at it. These pics are amazing.

 

[RonFrank]

I love the moon, especially with a reflection off the water. I've had buddies that connected their cameras to telescopes and got awesome pictures. Setting up with just the camea and a tripod is pretty tuff.

This picture was taken off the St. Thomas coast. Set the white balance and snap a couple.

Nice mood there Kevin! HArd to get those moons toned down huh. You can burn them in CS, but burnt out whites are impossible to save. Shove a properly expoused moon shot in this image, and NICE!! But good job on getting all but the moon exposued in a nice manner.

 

[Scubatooth]

I love the moon, especially with a reflection off the water. I've had buddies that connected their cameras to telescopes and got awesome pictures. Setting up with just the camea and a tripod is pretty tuff.

This picture was taken off the St. Thomas coast. Set the white balance and snap a couple.

What by chance was the exposure on that image as that has a beautiful blue/purple tone to it on my screen. this shot reminds me of the other night photography i have done in the past including many a star trail shot (no moon). if i can dig up the image i will post it.

ron is right about the exposure for the moon. there was a article(in one of the major mags) a couple of years ago about moon exposures and i will go dig it up and post it here once i find it.

FWIW

Tooth

 

[justleesa]

Thanks tooth! looking forward to that