Moon shot

[Yammer77]

Beth,
I know you aren't referring to my shot,
but I use f14, with a shutter speed of 1/50

[Beth Schmoyer]

thanks, any of the moonshots info would help to learn

Beth

[Yammer77]

interesting.
TB, was it arbitrary with your settings?
At first I was trying wide open with a slow shutter, but of course with the moon moving, it was horrible.

[Brian Keifer]

Mine was 1/30, ISO 100, f/16 with the Canon XTi and 100-400L.

You don't want to go for long exposures on the moon since you're shooting something that's in direct sunlight.  I picked ISO 100 to eliminate noise and f/16 to stop down for extra sharpness.

I also used mirror lock-up and a remote trigger to eliminate as much camera shake as possible.

[RacingHistorian]

but of course with the moon moving, it was horrible.

Yeah, that slippery little sucker is hard to capture on film!   

[Yammer77]

I got some from Sunday night because it was nice and low.
I will get them off the camera soon.

[leelf62]

I feel like I'm at NASA ...great shots everyone.  I love the craters and the shading and what looks like bursts of light that twinkle.  Wouldn't it be fun to get a shot like this of EARTH.
Lee

[lotus]

I came across of this thread and made a shot this morning to make my 50-th post on this Forum    


Alex.

[leelf62]

Wow, that's gorgeous, Alex!  I love the blue background too.

[emtp563]

I don't want to be the one to rain on your parade, but no one here is using the correct settings.  I'm sure everyone here has heard of the general rule of thumb for daytime exposures- "Sunny 16."  There is also a rule of thumb that applies to moon shots- it's called "Moon 11."  Everyone wants to over expose the moon.  In doing so, you are losing all the detail.  "Moon 11" = 1/ISO @ f/11.  Of course this has to be adjusted for different phases of the Moon and this formula is for a full moon.  You can't shoot an object that is brightly lit by the Sun wide open and expect good results.  Also, slow shutter speeds will yield poor results- as some on here have found out.

Here's an article on "Moon 11"- http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/TRIPOD/TRIPOD4.HTM

To figure out the proper exposure during different moon phases, use a "Moon Exposure Calculator":  http://www.adidap.com/2006/12/06/moon-exposure-calculator/

I'm quite surprised no one here knew about any of this, it's pretty standard stuff.

Here's one I took with a 400mm f/5.6L + 1.4x TC II:



Also, you will always have better results shooting a moon that is less than full.  At full moon, the sun that's illuminating it is just too bright and you loose a lot of detail.  One of the other posters in this thread is correct, the longer the lens the better. 

[lotus]

Anthony, thank you for this information.