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Settings for a nice Moon photo

Artful Dodger

Artful Dodger

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 28, 2004
2,357
1
In a false sense of reality...My Mind!
Hello to all,

I'm sitting here trying to get some good settings for taking a really nice photo of the moon tonight and so far I haven't been able to dial any in that would be considered good by most means. I've done a search and tried using others settings (base line settings that is) and have come up short.
I'd really like to get a few nice ones tonight because it cool out and the sky is nice and open for a change. My setup is a D50 using a 18-200 mmVR and a tripod with the remote. I have read that taking a photo of the moon is similar to taking a photo in the noon day sun (light reflection off the moon from the sun) so how do some of you combat this or really what settings work for most that have tried this?
I will/would love to post some moon shots tonight or tomorrow so any and all help greatly welcome :D
 
The nice thing about digital is you can guess at the settings, and immediately figure out if you need to adjust.

Try this to start (using the 18-200 at 200mm): ISO 200, 1/60 second, f/11. That worked for me last July 1. Note that 200mm isn't nearly enough reach - what's below is a 100% crop.

Note that I don't claim this is a very good photo - but the exposure isn't too bad. I was using a crap tripod; and I had it sitting on a wooden porch (0-fer-2).

moon_crop.jpg
 
Westside guy said:
The nice thing about digital is you can guess at the settings, and immediately figure out if you need to adjust.

Try this to start (using the 18-200 at 200mm): ISO 200, 1/60 second, f/11. That worked for me last July 1. Note that 200mm isn't nearly enough reach - what's below is a 100% crop.

Note that I don't claim this is a very good photo - but the exposure isn't too bad. I was using a crap tripod; and I had it sitting on a wooden porch (0-fer-2).

moon_crop.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks Westside guy,
I'm going to go try this using my glorified Jarts Tripod since the Tripod I wanted to get was backordered. I know the engineering duct-taped master piece of a tripod messed up most of the photos last-night so I'm adding some weight (light or more duct tape will be needed :rolleyes:) Those were close to my settings so wish me luck or the tripod will become a tomato stake by morning…
 
Yeah its super hard because the moon reflects so much light from the sun that it's hard to find a great focus point.... just trial and error haha that has always been my philosophy
 
ipodtoucher said:
Yeah its super hard because the moon reflects so much light from the sun that it's hard to find a great focus point.... just trial and error haha that has always been my philosophy
Click to expand...

ipodtoucher is 100% cprrect that the moon is reflecting sunlight (as we all know from astronomy). Thankfully, this means that the "Sunny 16" rule can be used here just as one would on a bright day. The rule states that at an aperture of f/16, your shutter speed should be 1/[your ISO speed]. So, if you are shooting at f/16 and an ISO of 400, your shutter speed would be 1/400. These settings should (and have for me) produced very well exposed images of a full moon. Slight boosts in exposure (+1/3) may be needed for crescent moons, but typically, the "Sunny 16" rule will work wonderfully on the moon.
 
Update:
Sorry for the wait but rain held me back until tonight from playing around with the moon. My one slow move was I didn't realize that the VR was set to off on the lens since I was happy that everything else was going so smooth until I saw the pics on my iMac :eek: Guess that's good because I won't forget that again anytime soon. So the only thing I did was sharpen the photos that came out fairly well considering the VR issue mainly so others that don't have this lens or are thinking about getting one can see how it fairs. I'll be posting another few tomorrow night bearing no rain, a larger more full moon and a clear sky "with VR" turned on this time. So until then thanks for the help from everyone!

Shutter: 1/400
Aperture: f5.6
Exposure Bias: 2.00
Focal Length: 200 mm
Flash: on
ISO: 200
 

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One interesting thing about the moon is that the dust/rocks are somewhat retro-reflective (like a stop sign). So at full moon it looks brighter (since we are pretty much in-line with the sun) than at first or last quarter or crescent phase. And the moons albedo is quite low (12%) so it is darker than an 18% gray card you may have for your camera.

This page talks about how the brightness changes: http://www.asterism.org/tutorials/tut26-1.htm

Generally you want the moon to look bright. So if you could spot meter the moon (with no surrounding black reaching the spot meter) you would probably want it brighter than the 18% the spot meter would try to expose for.

This page has a good chart of exposures for all the moon phases: http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/howtophoto/index.htm

Greg
 
Here's my best shot (so far)

K20D1021.jpg


Pentax K20D with A* 300mm f4, Pentax 2X-S teleconverter and a Sigma 1.4x teleconverter. So that's a focal length of 840 mm and an equivalent FL of 1260 mm (due to the APS-C sized sensor in the camera).

The EXIF says ISO 200 and 1/4 second at f8 (which really is f22 because of the teleconverters). It's not perfectly sharp but looks pretty good full screen on my 20" iMac. The photo is a bit of a crop since on the original the moon is a little less than half the height of the screen.

Regards - Greg
 
Eos 5D
500mm lens
shutter speed 1/250
Aperture f11
ISO 400
Large heavy tripod !!!

Sorry meant to say:
Image size increased using Photoshop CS3 / Genuine fractals 5
 

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Samsung GX-1S
Focal length - 300
FNumber - 8
Exposure time 1/125
No tripod - steady hand
I have only cropped it because I prefer it that way - no other adjustments
 

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D300/18-200mm Handheld
Focal Length:200mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200
Aperture: f5.6
ISO 200
Cropped and sharpened slightly.

Moon21808.jpg
 
w00t

I had a pop at this last night. The image is cropped, and B&W'd only.

Moon1.jpg


Shot on D300 1/125 @ f13 (I am going to try some other settings) - on a 200mm f2.8 lens with 2x telconv. (took through the UV filter, again I may mess with a polariser to see what it looks like).

This is my first ever successful moon shot. - thanks guys for the tips :)
 
Heres my best shot of the moon:
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter: 1/350
Exposure Bias: 0ev
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 70-300 @ 300mm

Fairly cheap tripod
Cropped and sharpened

dsc0996zf6.jpg

Full Image
 
ipodtoucher said:
Yeah its super hard because the moon reflects so much light from the sun that it's hard to find a great focus point.... just trial and error haha that has always been my philosophy
Click to expand...

As I was once told, on the moon it's always a SUNNY DAY !

I just got a new Canon 40D and cannot wait to put it on the telescope! :D

Set it as you would for any bright day, do some bracketing and such.

LEFT IMAGE:
EOS 10D mounted to a Meade ETX90 Telescope
Shutter 1/180
ISO 400

RIGHT IMAGE:
EOS 10D mounted to a Meade ETX90 Telescope
Shutter 1/1000
ISO 1600

BOTTOM IMAGE:

EOS: 40D
LENS: 75-300IS Canon
Aperture: f16
Exposure: 1/60
ISO: 100

Both were shot back in 2003.

It will be interesting to do some with the 40D and compare.
 

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leighonigar said:
VR should be off on a tripod. By all means try it - sounds like yours moves a bit - but it may make things worse.
Click to expand...

Yes it does, as in one of my other replies in another thread I told Westside guy that my current tripod is a better looking set of jarts and since then I had to (of all things) duct tape a leg. So it is nothing more than a silver plant holder at this point :eek: The tripod I want just came in (finally) at the local shop and I'm going to get it this weekend. Now if it would just stop raining in Buffalo that would also be wonderful ;)
Also I can't believe I forgot to crop my photo above so I'll be looking for another one to post that was nicer and also, cropped…

harcosparky
Quote:
Originally Posted by ipodtoucher View Post
Yeah its super hard because the moon reflects so much light from the sun that it's hard to find a great focus point.... just trial and error haha that has always been my philosophy
As I was once told, on the moon it's always a SUNNY DAY !

I just got a new Canon 40D and cannot wait to put it on the telescope!

Set it as you would for any bright day, do some bracketing and such.

LEFT IMAGE:
EOS 10D mounted to a Meade ETX90 Telescope
Click to expand...

I have to figure out how to connect my camera up to my Girlfriends Meade DS-90 because that thing makes the moon look great! Wonder how other planets would look as well? Maybe another thread or combine those photos here as well for that if others have been able to achieve pics through a telescope(s).
 
Artful Dodger said:
Yes it does, as in one of my other replies in another thread I told Westside guy that my current tripod is a better looking set of jarts and since then I had to (of all things) duct tape a leg. So it is nothing more than a silver plant holder at this point :eek: The tripod I want just came in (finally) at the local shop and I'm going to get it this weekend. Now if it would just stop raining in Buffalo that would also be wonderful ;)
Also I can't believe I forgot to crop my photo above so I'll be looking for another one to post that was nicer and also, cropped…



I have to figure out how to connect my camera up to my Girlfriends Meade DS-90 because that thing makes the moon look great! Wonder how other planets would look as well? Maybe another thread or combine those photos here as well for that if others have been able to achieve pics through a telescope(s).
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with the DS-90, the ETX90 has a port on the back and came with a T-Mount. I had to get a T-Mount -> EOS adapter for that.

If the DS90 doesn't have a port and all you have is the eyepiece, using a DSLR on the eyepiece isn't a good idea. It will work but so much of the image is wasted.

You need to get the eyepiece with the widest diameter, 26mm or 40mm.

Ideally when shooting through the eyepiece, you want the camera lens diameter to match the diameter of the eyepiece otherwise severe vignetting will occur.

I have taken pics with the 10D through an eyepiece and then used a Nikon 995 ( 3.2 megapixel - i think ). In any case the 995 produced the better image because it was matched to the eyepiece, so the image was full framed.


Here are three shots taken last night.

Camera: Canon 40D
Lens: El Cheapo Quantaray 500mm f/8.0 MIRRORED LENS
Shutter Speeds - 1/250 1/500 1/640

Tonight I will try to use the ETX90

Images were cropped only - no other editing was done.


If you are serious about hooking up your camera to a telescope check out SCOPETRONIX ---> http://www.scopetronics.com/wizard/intro.htm

That is a wizard where you tell it what camera you have, select the type of telescope viewing you have and it tells you all you need to get. They sell the gear!!!


Looks like they have something new called MAXVIEW that might give Full Frame through eyepiece with DSLR - they show Canon EOS10D and 20D, but that's the same as the 30D, 40D and so on.
 

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much later

It's a full moon the night after Halloween. Light and intermittent cloud cover, which actually makes for fantastic shots. I have been using a variety of techniques. Typically 10 secs on f10 turns out spectacular with an Eos 50d. I have been using the ubiquitous 28-35mm to shoot through and including branches. It creates an oh so spooky Tim Burton feel. I also experimented with f6.3 to create a blown-out sepia-daylight look. The leaf color comes out strong and the moon looks like sunlight. Fun stuff.
 
Thx for tips here, this is my first "moon still", Took this morning (Thur 11/5) 3:30am:
Tripod, f11 aperture, 1/125 sec, ISO200, 250mm.
_MG_0848.jpg
 
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