Moon images how fast?

<p>Hello,<br>

I want to capture an image of the partial Moon with my D300, 500mm f8 mirror lens and 2x converter. So I'm stuck with f16 aperture.<br>

I do have a very stable support system.</p>

<p>My question is what is the slowest shutter speed I can expect to use without getting motion blur.</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

<p>Anthony,</p>

<p>If you use the Sunny f/16 rule, you'll get a somber, dark gray moon. I would recommend opening one stop brighter for an image that's a bit brighter but still shows some detail on the surface.</p>

<p>The Sunny f/16 rule states that when shooting an object that's being lit by direct sunlight, set your aperture to f/16 and your shutter speed to the inverse of your film speed (ISO). If you ISO is 200, set your shutter speed to 1/200. If you ISO is 800, set your shutter speed to 1/800.</p>

<p>Since you want to open up a stop, set your shutter speed to 1/100th of a second at ISO 200 or 1/400th at ISO 800.</p>

<p>This is a general guideline. As always, be sure to bracket your exposures or risk losing the shot altogether.</p>

 

<p>I've always spot metered the moon, and that works great for me. It keeps the sky pitch-black, and the contrast in the moon surface well visible. Most moonshots I took, end up with shutterspeeds of 1/200th ~ 1/500th with ISO800, F/6.7 and 500mm. So, if the moon is well-lit, you should be safe, you could even maybe drop to ISO400.</p>

<p>The nice thing with digital is that you can try many different settings and find the one that works the best yourself. This is what I did with this recent picture of Jupiter and four of its moons. Before I started I had no idea of what settings to use (or even if if I'd get anything decent. ) To my surprise I got a shot that many people have marveled at.<br>

Good luck and have fun.</p><div></div>

<p>Many thanks for all the helpful advise....</p>

<p>I imagined needing slower speeds at ISO200 and expected motion blur to be an issue. But 1/100th would seem to be more than fast enough to stop the moon. Although at 1000mm + crop factor I expect I'll need to re frame every shot.</p>

<p>Out of interest can anyone remember trying to capture an image on slow film and having problems with slow shutter speeds?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Anthony,</p>

<p>I am by NO means a qualified Photographer of the likes you will find on this site. But, I will share with you what I done. You can check out these shots on my Photo Blog if you care to: <a href="www.philthephoyoguy.blogspot.com">www.philthephotoguy.blogspot.com</a> .<br>

I used my Nikon D90 with a Sigma 70-200mm @ 200mm, f6.3, 1/200 sec, ISO 200<br>

both shots on the blog are the same one except I done some work to the 2nd one in PS.<br>

phil b<br>

benton, ky</p><div></div>

<p>I would think you'd have to have VERY slow film to get motion blur with a moon shot. Here's the moon at ISO 100 with the same setup as above.</p><div></div>

<p>Your looking at 1000mm + the 1.5 crop factor for an equivalent focal length of 1500mm at F16. Mirror and tripod vibration are going to be a major problem. You will want to keep your shutter speed up in the 1/250 to 1/750 range and have a good tripod. To accomplish that you're going to need to boost your ISO up to whatever you need to get the faster shutter speeds. Do a google search on astrophotography, there are 1000's of sites that will give you some suggestions on photographing the moon.</p>

<p>I have a 8in - 2000mm - F10 Meade SCT telescope and when I bump the tripod while veiwing the moon it takes 5 to 8 seconds to settle back down to a stable image. That's with a pretty good equitorial mount with tracking motor.</p>

<p>The D300 has "mirror up mode" and I have a very stable platform available...<br />But I do expect problems with stability, that is why I wanted to eliminate any potential problems with motion blur. And just concentrate on trying to keep my set up steady.</p>

<p>The moon moves one moon diameter every two minutes.</p>

<p>I think the moon movement is as big a problem as the tripod stability. Assuming an equivalent focal length of 1500mm. I think a shutter speed of 1/2000th may be required.</p>

<p>The absolute slowest shutter speed to avoid movement is 1/30 second. I have used this with ISO 100 film with both a F (mirror lock-up) and a FM2N (self timer activation) on separate occasions with a 500mm f8 mirror lens with 2x and 1.4x teleconverters together (equivalent of a 1400mm f22 lens, although more like f32) on a very heavy duty tripod.</p>

<p>The movement Mark describes above is correct. By watching the movement of the Moon in the viewfinder and timing its movement, this gives you an understanding of its movement direction and rate of travel across the viewfinder. The Moon can then be positioned in one of the corners of the viewfinder, which will then give you 2 minutes to lock the mirror up ready to fire the shutter at which time the Moon would be centered in the viewfinder.</p>

<p>Anthony.... Depending on the quality of the 2x converter, you will most likely get better results by shooting at 500mm and f/8, and cropping the result. And by "most likely" I'm talking up in the 95% range. Medium-sized-and-sharp beats big-and-blurry <em>everytime</em>.</p>

<p>Try putting a small sandbag on the lens and camera to dampen vibrations, just as you'd do during the day. And hang a heavy weight under the tripod.</p>

<p>I should clarify that I'm not just talking about the degraded image caused by putting a 2x converter on a lens. I'm mainly refering to the two stops of shutter speed you gain from f/16 to f/8, as well as the fact that your camera-motion-induced blur will be cut in half.</p>

<p>Always had success around F11, 1/400, 400 ISO. Taken with a Canon 300mm F4 lens with a 1.4 converter. You will probably be better off without the 2x converter ... Ray.</p><div></div>

<p>I agree with John's answer. To stop the movement, 1/30 of a sec or slower. To also get a good image, you also need to follow many of the other suggestions dealing with long lens technique, proper use of tcs, metering techniques, bracketing, etc. Understanding the phases of the moon and the type of image you are looking for are other factors too. For example, you get little to no shadow detail at full moon. <br />Joe Smith</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Always had success around F11, 1/400, 400 ISO. Taken with a Canon 300mm F4 lens with a 1.4 converter.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Which is exactly one stop over the Sunny f/16 exposure value that someone suggested! ;)</p>

 

<p>You just need to take some test shots and bracket a few shots. I usually spot meter the moon and subtract one to two stops of exposure to make sure I don't blow it out of range. <br>

This was shot @f10 iso 100 at 1/20 minus -1 stop of exposure using Sony a700 w/ 70-300SSM,G @300mm (450mm in 35mm or FF ).</p><div></div>

<p>ISO 200, F16, 1/60 second will get you a nicely exposed full moon. A full moon is as bright as daylight.</p>

<p>I took this image with the moon rising just above the horizon giving it its red glow. I used Rick's method for getting the right exposure. Ended up with ISO-100 f/5.6 @ 1/30 sec 300mm (450) Sony a350 </p><div></div>

<p>Thank you everyone I really appreciate the advise.....<br>

Exposure settings, tips on framing and technique, they have all been very helpful.<br>

I do intend taking some shots without the converter and with my 300mm and 1.4x to compare results. My interest is in a partial moon image as I want to capture strong shadows.</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

<p>Anthony,<br>

You probably already know this, as you expressed interest in a partial moon, the dramatic full moon posters is the merging of two half moon images. During a full moon, the surface is flat, while it has the most contrast at half moon.</p>

<p>Anthony,F5.6 to F8 at 1/60 sec for a full moon at ISO 100 always worked for me back in my film days.Much easier now with digital to check results.</p>

<p>Here is my shot - major problem was shake, as mentioned above (2000mm Nikkor = 43 lbs!), so I had to go to ISO 3200 at f11 to get 1/400....</p><div></div>

<p>I took some shots of the moon (sorry, don't have any scanned) with a Canon F-1N loaded with Kodak ISO200 HD film when it was still available, an 800mm f5.6L and a 2X extender. Shake was my biggest problem too. The slightest air movement caused the moon to swing around wildly in the viewfinder. I ended up using two tripods. The front one was my heavy Gitzo mounted as far forward as I could go on the lens rail and had about 15 lbs. slung underneith. The rear tripod was mounted to the camera body andI had to keep moving it to keep the moon in frame. I think I was shooting at f16. I metered the moon with a spot meter, added 2 stops for the extender, and doublechecked with the cameras spot meter. Bracketed one and two stops up and down. The middle shot came out perfect. It was an identical view to Harvey Serreze only showed more depth and detail.</p>