help with night shooting

[jbeach]

Tomorrow night should be a full moon, would like to try to get some good shots,

but do not really know about the settings, I purchased a Olympus E500 digital

slr camera after having a point and shoot,and really need some help. Thanks

[thomasmckown]

One thing to remember is to use fast glass or at least shoot about a stop or so from wide open to let in as much light as possible. One of your biggest enemies at night is noise due to either high ISO or long exposures or a combination of the two. Try playing around with your settings and experimenting a little, after all, that is one of the many benefits to digital. Also, dont be afraid to play with long exposures, you really get some neat effects with clouds this way. Have fun, night photography can make for some very fun times!

[savagesax]

If you are taking pictures of just the moon, set the camera to ISO 100 and your F-stop at F-11. The pics of the moon will look great.

[bruce_margolis]

Jackie, one of the nice things about photographing the full moon is you have a few days to experiment. However, my settings are a bit different than what Thomas suggested.

 

The first thing you need is a long lens, 200mm minimum but 400mm or more is much better. Also, you need a tripod or other very good support. A cable release also is helpful.

 

Here's a shot from last year. It was 1/200. Why the high shutter speed? Because the moon is moving. Too low a shutter speed, you will get blur. Your settings with your camera may be a bit different so try it out and see what works for you.

 

This is the cropped image enlarged from the center....<div></div>

[jay a. frew]

Hello Jackie:

 

Here is a link that you might find helpful:

 

http://www.mreclipse.com/MrEclipse.html

 

That link has a lot of stuff on lunar eclipse photography...but hey...the moon is full at the start and end of the eclipse period.

 

Cheers! Jay<div></div>

[bstinshoff]

If you're trying to expose both the moon and the surroundings properly, you might try some double exposure experiments - i.e. take one shot of the moon at F11 and the shutter at 1/iso speed and the other shot using a longer exposure - then merge them together in the computer. The moon is a very bright object. If you expose for the surroundings, you're going to seriously overexpose the moon.

[James G. Dainis]

The moon is just reflected sunlight the same as rocks on earth. The "luney 11" is similar to the "sunny 16" rule. Set the camera to f/11 and the shutter speed to 1/ISO used. The examples you see above are in that ballpark.

[thomasmckown]

Im sorry, I didnt even check to clarify if you were actually taking pictures of the moon, I just assumed you were going to shoot some landscapes by moonlight. Silly me, Im just in my own world over here.

[adaspin]

Jackie: The advice that has been given regarding shooting the moon, sounds good to me, so I won't add anything to it. I,too enjoy night photography, and I thought that you might find some of my night shots interesting, and maybe they could give you some ideas.. Just thought I'd share... Andrew daspin