Lunar photography

Hi There,

 

I have tried on a number of times to take a photo of the moon with my Nikon D50

and a sigma 80-300 zoon lens mounted on a tripod, however it never turns out

great.

 

I have seen a number of great lunar shots on photo.net and I was hoping that

some of the members here could give me a few tips on how to capture a quality

shot.

 

Mark S.

What sort of problems are you having?

<br><Br>

Try using aperture priority, at f/11, ISO 100. You'll need a very sturdy tripod, and should use a remote release, or your self timer. Look at the exposure... switch to manual exposure, stick with f/11, and start adjusting your shutter speed on either side of what the camera suggested, until you get an exposure that shows the detail you're looking for.

<br><br>

The exposure's the easy part. Most people have trouble keeping the camera steady enough. Sandbag your tripod, or otherwise do what you can to make it as stable as possible.

I am not big on astronomy photography, unless it was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. But when I took an astronomy class in college I saw my teacher put his camera right up to the eyepiece of the telescope. Whether this is a good method or not? I am not sure, but I'd say it is worth a shot.

Hi Mark.

 

I shot the moon last night when it was full. Some posters have suggested doing it at around or close to midnight with the following settings; 1/ISO, f8 to f/16. If you're using a light lens and speeds up to 1/160 to 1/200 and up, you may get a decent photo handheld. Otherwise, a tripod is a must.

 

Good luck and have fun!

Just as we have the 'sunny 16 rule' f/16 , shutter 1/ISO,

we also have the 'loony 11 rule' f/11, shutter 1/ISO,

The moon is in full sunlight but on other side of the earth.

The reflected moonlight is not quite as bright as daylight.

/Clay

Well I'm going to be a bit controversial here - use f2.8 with ISO 400 and bracket your speeds using the bulb setting. The moon doesn't have any realistic DoF being so far away and so anything greater than f2.8 is a waste of time - quite literally. Unless of course you want to use a greater DoF to obtain optimum sharpness from your lens. Use a tripod for sure. Then again, I took this shot using a cheap point and shoot with a fixed lens in automatic mode (fuji 40i - yes really) and shooting through the eyepiece of a telescope handheld. So maybe digiscoping would give you better results.<div></div>

Well I'm going to be a bit controversial here - use f2.8 with ISO 400 and bracket your speeds using the bulb setting. The moon doesn't have any realistic DoF being so far away and so anything greater than f2.8 is a waste of time - quite literally. Unless of course you want to use a greater DoF to obtain optimum sharpness from your lens. Use a tripod for sure. Then again, I took this shot using a cheap point and shoot with a fixed lens in automatic mode (fuji 40i - yes really) and shooting through the eyepiece of a telescope handheld. So maybe digiscoping would give you better results. Hope this image works ok.<div></div>

oops sorry I seem to have posted twice by mistake!

Hey Mark:

 

The moon is in direct sunlight and is really no different than shooting in direct

sunlight here on good ole earth. Do you know the "Sunny 16 rule? In essence it

states that in direct sun light, set the aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the same

as your ISO setting. So if you are set at ISO 200, then set the shutter to 125th or

200th of a second to be exact.

 

Then you can play around with the "relative" settings that you will find on most EV

charts. So f/16 @ 125 equals f/11@250th equals f/8 @ 500th equals f/5.6 @

1000th, etc...

 

Of course you may want to bracket. I have found that the exact Sunny 16 rule

sometimes gives a slightly underexposed image of the moon so shooting with a

slower shutter of f/16 @ 125th works well rather than the exact 200th of a second.

Tripods are not needed if you are shooting with a wide open aperture. My

recommendation is this: Set to manual on ISO 200, set the aperture to f/4 and your

shutter to 2000th. This will give you a sharp image of the moon.

Well now that we have the exposure down, does anyone have an opinion on presetting the camera (Nikon) to create a black and white exposure when shooting the moon? Does it make any difference? And what filter effect? Red/yellow/orange? What's your preferred moon color? Straight on grayish white, dull gray, yellowish orange? Also, how can we predict when the moon will occasionally appear to be much closer,larger and orange when it is low on the horizon? Is there a specific time table for this? Or is it just a luck shot?

John:

 

Shooting film or digital? If digital, your camera is already reading the information in

black & white (gray tones). Digital cameras do not see color information, rather the

diodes capture levels of light information using Red, Green & Blue filters over the

pixels on the sensor. (See "Channels" in the Layers/Channels palette in Photoshop).

By selecting each individual RGB channel, you already have the image as it would

have been shot with a Red Green or Blue filter using black & white film.

 

As for size of the moon and horizon, it is true the lower in the horizon the larger the

moon appears. A good debate between rivaling ideas can be found here:

 

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_110.html

 

As for clarity, these steps are really the only things that will give you the sharpest

image of the moon.

1. Use a slow ISO (i.e. 100 or less)

2. Use the longest telephoto lens you can afford

3. Use a tripod

4. Shoot on a clear night (maybe in winter to reduce moisture)

5. Shoot in RAW (the camera setting!)