Photographing the full moon

[Marvin]

<p>I've lost my cheat sheet for the best settings to use for photographing the full moon with my 7D and 100-400mm lens. Can someone remind me of the most useful starting point? Thanks.</p>

[dave_trayers]

<p>The moon is being illuminated by the sun as if it's a sunny day (in fact, it is a sunny day on the moon). Expose for that. Use the histogram to adjust from there.</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/learn/nature/sunmoon</p>

[Hector Javkin]

<p>As Dave said. However, when we see the moon in the sky, we perceive it as less dark than it is (it's a gray rock) so that you may want to open up a stop to have it fit that perception. The best thing when you're first doing it is to start with the advice you received above and bracket.</p><div></div>

[dcstep]

<p>Here's a piece that I wrote for Induro:</p>

<p>http://blog.indurogear.com/how-to-photograph-the-moon-without-losing-your-mind/</p>

<p>Your exposure will vary widely, depending on whether it's during daylight or night. Check your LCD and don't be afraid to go pretty extreme on the -EV, particularly when shooting at night. </p>

[Marcus Ian]

<p>Those are some great resources with good information.</p>

<p>Just remember that the IS system on your 100-400 should be turned off for tripod shooting. As well, locking the mirror up, and using a remote shutter release are techniques I'd highly recommend - Especially as you get into the eff 600mm+ FOV range. I would also keep your ISO at 100-200 to give you some recovery range - Noise gets very ugly very fast w/ a black sky. </p>

<p>IME shooting the moon (at night) , the brighter the moon, the less detail you'll be able to resolve. So to get something like Hector's post, you'll probably want to set your metering to underexpose by at least a stop or two. Luckily it moves so slowly that you usually have plenty of time to adjust fire. </p>

<p>Things get a bit hairier when you try to incorporate other things like clouds, trees, halos, etc. Mainly because the moon is sooooo much brighter than anything else in the night sky. You may have to sacrifice some moon detail to pick up the shadow detail on the other subjects. Either that or bracket and do composite shots. </p>

<p>Luckily you don't have a 36 exposure limit ;)</p>

[dcstep]

<p>Despite my connection with Induro, I hand hold most of my moon shots. There's plenty of light, even at 1,000mm.</p>

<p>Typical hand held result, single shot:</p>

<p><a title="Waxing Gibbous Moon by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2948/15422172021_bac9cfd9cc_c.jpg" alt="Waxing Gibbous Moon" width="800" height="800" /></a><br>

Don't make it any harder than it needs to be.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Another source, in this sort of thing, the more the merrier:<br>

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/howtophoto/index.htm <br>

As it points out at the beginning:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Although it is by far the biggest and brightest object in the night sky the moon is not an easy subject to photograph. Using a standard 50mm lens, an image projected onto a slide or negative is only about 1/50 of an inch.</p>

</blockquote>

 

[dcstep]

<p>Yeah, telephoto reach is important. That's part of the reason why they make super-telephoto lenses and 2.0x teleconverters and crop-sensor camera.</p>

[jeff_conrad]

<p>Though not expressly mentioned, the thrust of this discussion seems to be photographing the full Moon when it’s fairly high above the horizon. One thing to keep in mind is that David’s third image in the linked article is a very different animal from most of the others, because the Moon is close to the horizon. When the Moon is at the horizon, it’s about 11 steps less bright than at an altitude of 40°, and it gets brighter very fast as it rises. Depending on the time of day, the Moon can go from so faint it’s barely visible to so bright that it’s difficult capture against a landscape without making at least two different exposures. Although it’s possible to estimate the brightness for a given altitude, the actual brightness is very dependent on atmospheric conditions, so the estimates are rough at best.</p>

<p>Once the Moon reaches about 20°, the luminance doesn’t change so rapidly, so the exposure is much easier to estimate. And as the article David linked notes, catching the Moon well above the horizon also reduces distortion and scintillation (the latter is a big deal in most urban areas). For a full Moon above about 20°, the exposure is close to that for daylight for a realistic rendering. As Hector (and Ansel Adams) noted, the Moon is often perceived as brighter, so increasing exposure by one step may give a more pleasing rendering (Adams supposedly placed the Moon on Zone VII in his <em>Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico</em>).</p>

[dcstep]

<p>Jeff makes several really good points, similar to what I say in my linked article, but reading it said several ways can be very helpful.</p>

<p>Shooting the moon below 20-degrees and getting it sharp, without atmospheric interference, takes extreme good luck. There's usually too much haze (it doesn't take much to obscure true detail), then I'll opt for more of a scenic image, with the moon as an accent that doesn't need to be super sharp. I was really lucky in that moon over Mount Evans shot in the linked article, because I got clear mountain and a relatively sharp moon. <br /><br />I pay attention to moon rise and moon set and their relationship to sunrise and sunset and try to be there as often as possible. Even when out shooting birds, I look around to see where the moon is. Anyway, shooting it above 20-degrees you the best chance to get a sharp shot. Some of the best conditions are the moon at 20 to 30-degrees, rising in the East while the sun is an hour or two from setting in the West. The sky will be nice and blue and the moon will be sharp, with the slightest bit of luck.</p>

<p>Shoot often and lots and your odds keep going up that you'll get a great shot.</p>

[glen_h]

<p>It is supposed to be that not so many years ago it was found that actual (maybe within a day) full moons are brighter than you would expect.<br>

It seems that the moon reflects more than usual straight back, like a bicycle reflector. <br>

http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Retro-Reflection+phenomena</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>Spot meter it and check the histogram!</p>

<p>Typically you're looking at 1/ISO at f11 for the full moon, though what I do is bracket exposures to start with and take a look at the images and histograms to optimize things.</p>

<p>The full moon isn't a very interesting subject since contrast is low.</p>

<p>See http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/astrophotography2.html for some examples and a bit more info.</p>

<p>This cropped image was taken with a 7D and a 500mm lens with 2x TC:</p>

 

<center><img src="http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/astrophotography/moon-detail.jpg" alt="" /></center>

[dcstep]

<p>When processing moon shots, most of us add lots of contrast in the Raw conversion.</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>I rarely shoot the full moon unless it is in <a href="/photo/13479092&size=md"><em><strong>larger context</strong></em>.</a></p>

<p>Other shots, like<a href="/photo/13479092&size=lg"><em><strong> this one</strong> </em></a>of the half moon (first quarter) that was shot during the afternoon, typically require under-exposure. The moon is very bright. Start with sunny sixteen (since the sun is in direct sunlight, and then reassess in deciding which way to go.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p> </p>

[dcstep]

<p>Showing off my new Canon 7D MkII. Here's my first moon shot with it:</p>

<p><a title="First Moon Shot With New Canon 7D MkII by David Stephens, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15484403729_d9425b08db_c.jpg" alt="First Moon Shot With New Canon 7D MkII" width="800" height="800" /></a></p>

<p>ISO 800, 1000mm, f/8.0, 1/640-sec., hand held. Evening light, at about sunset.</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>I mistakenly linked twice to the same shot above.</p>

<p><a href="/photo/16696132"><em><strong>Here</strong></em></a> is the file that showed a "larger context."</p>

<p>I like to try to get the moon and the earth in the same exposure.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[dan_south]

<p>One stop more open than Sunny f/16 does a good job. I you know your camera well and know how much raw dynamic range it has, you might be able to expose a bit more open.</p>

<p>Sunny f/16 at ISO 100 = 1/100s @ f/16</p>

<p>One stop faster = 1/100s @ f/11</p>

<p>The moon moves, so you might want to shoot a faster equivalent exposure:</p>

<p>1/400s @ f/5.6</p>

<p>or</p>

<p>1/800s @ f/4</p>

<p>That should be a good starting point.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that brightness varies with atmospheric clarity and where the moon is in the sky (it's more dim near the horizon), so be flexible, bracket, and check your histogram to spot exposure problems.</p>