Moon distortion driving me crazy

<p>The moon was in sharp focus in my view finder yet the image came out distorted and I have no clue as to why.<br>

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i<br>

Lens: 500mm tube f/8 CPL filter<br>

Exposure: 1/60<br>

Camera was mounted on a tripod and I was using a cable release. This seems to have happened on most of the pictures I took that night. Any information would be helpful thanks in advanced.</p>

<p><img src="../photo/15680972" alt="" /></p><div></div>

<p>One possibility might be a conflict between setting the anti-shake feature on the camera body or lens and mounting the camera on a tripod. I know my camera's manual recommends turning off that feature when mounting the camera on a tripod.</p>

<p>Moon distortion has driven men crazy for thousands of years. You're in good company.</p>

<p>Semi-seriously, you might need a better camera platform. Some photographers who don't want to lug heavier tripods and more massive heads will use long lens supports with lighter weight tripods. Slik and Manfrotto even made long lens supports as optional accessories for some of their lighter weight tripods like the Slik U212 Deluxe. </p>

<p>These are just aluminum telescoping extension arms. One end attaches to a tripod leg, the other to the lens - either via the lens tripod mount or, if it doesn't have one, by wrapping a velcro band around the lens barrel.</p>

<p>Some folks even use two tripods, one for the body, another for the camera. I'd take up another hobby first.</p>

<p>Before spending more money on gear, first try a simple test. Use some bags of rice, beans, whatever you already have handy, as sandbag type supports. Rest the whole camera and lens in a bed of those bags of rice or beans. That's as steady as it gets. Focus on a distant object and trigger the camera with a remote, self-timer, etc. (some folks with steady hands can use the shutter release as usual). If you're still getting blurry photos, it's probably not motion blur.</p>

<p>Might be atmospheric distortion. Might be a flaw in the lens or mount between lens and camera. I'm also seeing some chromatic aberration in the moon photo, but that's hard to avoid and can be cleaned up in editing. And if a "CPL" filter is a polarizer, try removing it for these tests. One less variable to worry about.</p>

<p>[[And if a "CPL" filter is a polarizer, try removing it for these tests. One less variable to worry about.]]</p>

<p>Indeed, there is no reason for a polarizing filter to be used here. Removing it would also allow you to increase shutter speed. </p>

<p>Note to self: Leave filters in bag when shooting moon.</p>

<p>Thanks gents.</p>

<p>This was my first try at shooting the moon so the learning curve here is pretty big. My first thought was the atmosphere as it was a rather humid night. I'll give the bag test a try and see what happens. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one it makes crazy so I can quit flogging myself now.</p>

<p>Some other thoughts besides heavy tripod and no filters. You really need to use a faster shutter speed. Regarding exposure, do not rely on your meter, the moon typically reflects about the same amount of light from the sun as our own landscape does; that is why many photographers refer to exposure as "luny 11" (ie for a full moon the ISO serves as your shutter speed at f11). Also make sure you MANUALLY focus your lens at infinity...some lenses focus past infinity to allow for expansion of their parts. Do not use any form of image stabilization, as mentioned above, it can introduce additional movement. If you can lock up your mirror for the shot, all the better as it can give you a few seconds for any vibrations to doe down. Good luck & keep trying....it took me a few sessions to nail it, and even now occasionally I'm foiled by atmospherics I can't detect visually.</p>

<p>Definitely don't want to be using a polarizing filter for the moon at night. Ideally, you'd use 1/125 or faster for the moon. Manual focus is necessary, because even at f/8 or f/11 or smaller, there is narrow depth of field with a 500mm lens. And since even with a 500mm lens the moon will be quite small in your viewfinder, you may find it easier to focus with LiveView zoomed on the moon. The amount of jitter you see on the screen in LiveView will also tell you if your platform is sufficiently stable. </p><div></div>

<p>For shots like these I always use mirror lock up and a 2 second shutter delay. I don't know how to set these on a Drebel but on the x0D cameras MLU is set through a custom function, the 2 second delay is set with one of the top buttons which switches through singel shot, continuous and shutter delay. The latter is normally 10 sec but when used with MLU it switches to 2 sec.</p>

<p>Thanks Samuel and Jos.<br>

I did have the ISO set at 100.</p>

<p>Ian Rance is getting similar images using a store brand CPL in this current thread:<br>

http://www.photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00aMms?unified_p=1<br>

I've never heard of this issue before but now, twice in one day?</p>

<p>Minor side issue ... does the moon look upsidedown from the northern hemisphere? becuase Mr Liphoff's photo is upside down compared to my shots, perhaps becuase he is shooting at 800 ISO instead of 160 that I used down here under the equator.</p>

<p>Hmmm, surprised you could get a proper expose at ISO 100 and f/8, especially with a polarizing filter, which probably attenuates the light by an additional two stops. It looks like there is a lot of noise in your image, so you probably had to boost the exposure afterwards? I'm not so familiar with the T3i, but ISO 800 or even ISO 1600 should be fine, if properly exposed. The moon is quite bright compared to the night sky, so shadow noise should be driven away by the vast dynamic range involved. Mirror lockup is good practice (I shot mine with mirror lockup and an IR remote, and waited ten seconds for any vibration to die down, because my 800mm lens is so long). I assume you are using a 500mm f/8 mirror lens? Vibration shouldn't be quite as bad, but you should check your lens on a terrestrial subject during the day to see what shutter speeds you can use.</p>

Things are different in the southern hemisphere. In the northern hemisphere the first quarter looks like a growing D, while in the southern hemisphere it looks like a C. The moon looks upside down in the southern hemisphere. Or, to Southern Hemispherians, the moon would look upside down in the northern hemisphere. Photos taken with a telescope, unless it had an inverter, would look upside down as compared to the visual.

<p>Thankyou James ... I was puzzled and didn't know the answer :-)</p>

<p>Your shutter speed is way too slow, moon moved during exposure?</p>

<p>all these answers are great. another thing to consider is using a mirror lock feature, if your camera supports that.</p>