Night Photography

digitalage

Just to remind some people, tonight will be a great opportunity for night photography as there is the full harvest moon and weather forcast looks like it will be clear skies, I'm going to take a few shots around the east coast tonight.

5uspect

Cool, thanks.

440Hz

Thanks for the tip digitalage! Might be a good time to remind people about the Flickr Challenge running at the mo 'Photograph the Moon' wink wink nudge nudge!!

Calina

Lunar eclipse this evening as well around the 8pm mark in case anyone is interested.

Tarakiwa

Thanks for this guys.
I actually thought the moon looked wonderful last night & tried to take a few shots ................. not 1 of them came out well at all .......... they were all very "shakey"!

This might be a stupid question (but I am new to this) but do you need a tripod to take steady shots at night? What is the best setting to have your camera on for these type of shots? (if responding please treat me like a village idiot as my knowledge really is NIL!!!!)

Cheers,
T

GristlyEnd

Tarakiwa wrote:

Thanks for this guys.
I actually thought the moon looked wonderful last night & tried to take a few shots ................. not 1 of them came out well at all .......... they were all very "shakey"!

This might be a stupid question (but I am new to this) but do you need a tripod to take steady shots at night? What is the best setting to have your camera on for these type of shots? (if responding please treat me like a village idiot as my knowledge really is NIL!!!!)

Cheers,
T

A tripod does help. I took some pics of the moon last night and put one up on the flickr group.

Quite a few of mine came out shakey until I reliased my dog was resting up against the tripod panting like mad. We had just come in from our walk.

digitalage

Tarakiwi if you just want a photo of the moon then use a telephoto and an exposure setting of around f16 1/125s ISO100, you will be in the ball park area with these settings. The moon can be great for landscape shots I took this last month it was a 4 minutes exposure, the moon had just risen up behind dalkey island, it was very cloudy night though.

thebaz

i took my first decent photo of the moon last night - visibilty was good - second photo in my flickr


http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/

Tarakiwa

digitalage wrote:

Tarakiwi if you just want a photo of the moon then use a telephoto and an exposure setting of around f16 1/125s ISO100, you will be in the ball park area with these settings. The moon can be great for landscape shots I took this last month it was a 4 minutes exposure, the moon had just risen up behind dalkey island, it was very cloudy night though.

Thanks a million for the advice. (I really like your shot by the way!)

Looks like I will have to get the manual out to figure out what the hell "exposure setting of around f16 1/125s ISO100" is .................. (told you I had NIL knowledge at the moment!!

I will try a few shots tonight & post tomorrow if I get anything half decent.

Trip Hazard

Cheers I'll have to look out for that, get my point and click at the ready, aint got a digital SLR just yet.

440Hz

Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah

Thats me screaming due to the pain of kicking myself that on the best moon night of the year, and my first time with a 300mm lens I left my tripod in Tralee and my remote in Waterford! Handheld moon shots at 300mm - thank god for IS, I still dont think any will work out though

edunon

Shot just few minutes ago, the moon looks great today.



Double exposure madness.

Calina

and



Slight chunk out is courtesy of the lunar eclipse. Both photos taken in Howth, County Dublin, with a 350D and 70-300mm Sigma. No tripod but handy camera bag and wall.

rymus

I wanna play, I wanna play!!!



Photo on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rymus/237175495/

thebaz

nice photos -- are you all using long zooms, i tried with my kit lens nikon , and its just a small spec , nothing like that detail in rymus --
calina that bottom eclipse one is excellent --- my nikon has let me down.

Oriel

That wasn't taken tonight, but it's the only one time I've tried.

Fajitas!

Bah, I was shooting a gig tonight, think if I take another photo, either my camera or myself will explode.

Ugh the sweat.

What a night for photography too

Fionn

i took a few last night the 6th Sep, i'm up there with Tarakiwa - really need to read the manual
anyway i haven't had the chance to look at any of them yet, judging by the preview on the cam they don't seem to be that impressive mostly overexposed, anyweigh if there's any presentable i'll post to the flickr challenge

440Hz

There you all are with your fancy moon shots and your fancy lens and all your fancy tripods.... i hate you all

Well... I had a rail for a tripod and didnt do so well... but there are some night shots here on a flickr group http://www.flickr.com/photos/click_click/sets/72157594274173202/ only one moon shot, just cos im not a lemming... is it a moon or a milkybar disc.... for moon fans checkout... http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song/

Oriel

440Hz wrote:

for moon fans checkout... http://www.rathergood.com/moon_song/

*pours the chloroform*
Don't worry folks, nothing to see here... keeping moving on...

*Looks around* MEDIC!!!

440Hz

K... gonna use the forum for what it is here for... I need help! This is the second night in a row that I have tried to get a moon shot like you guys have here. Last night I thought it was just down to lack of tripod but tonight I have one and its not any better. Im shooting at 300mm, f/16, ISO 100 at various exposures and it doesnt seem to matter what I do I end up with a milky bar disc moon with little or no detail. So what am I doing wrong? Any tips?

Fajitas!

Use a shorter exposure than you might think!

440Hz

Fajitas! wrote:

Use a shorter exposure than you might think!

Just shot about 20 images at various exposures and they are all the same! Very little difference... I must be doing something really stupid that I just dont realise

PonderStibbons

This is my attempt, I've just bought a D50 and I took a load of snaps through a 114mm telescope I've had for a few years. Unfortunately I had to keep the shutter speed high because camera shake would have been a big problem. Because of this they were pretty dark. Can anyone tell me how I can edit the RAW files that come out of the camera? The only programs that seems to be able to see them is either PictureProject, which is horribly slow, or else picasa, which makes the files way too bright, and doesn't give you any options to reduce it, only increase it. The free trial of Nikon capture editor won't see them (and won't allow me to update the software, grrr!) and the GIMP sees them as 120X120 pixel photos for some reason. So I'm a bit fecked at the moment!




The original is enormous, it takes up about 4 monitors I think! Blurry as hell though, if anyone has any tips on how to improve it let me know!


Errr, sorry for the rant

GristlyEnd

440Hz wrote:

Just shot about 20 images at various exposures and they are all the same! Very little difference... I must be doing something really stupid that I just dont realise

Use spot metering. Matrix or centre weighted will just wash out the moon.

Shrimp

PonderStibbons:

Get the trail version of Photoshop from adobe.com: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/
Then update it after you've installed it, using the update link next to the try link.

Then download a programme plug-in called camera raw: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html
That will allow you to open the raw files in PS. The plug in is great for tweaking photos too.

Good luck. Any more questions, just ask.


I think thats how it's done.. worked for me!

Fionn

i took a pile the other night, two looked promising in preview on zoombroweser but when i viewed them at the proper res they were crap out of focus blurry things
dunno what to do? went to the pub instead tonight!
the moon will be there sometime again right?
if not there's always daylight photography!!

rymus

Fionn wrote:

if not there's always daylight photography!!

There you go again with your crazy radical left wing thinking. Daylight photography! Pah! It'll never catch on!

440Hz

rymus wrote:

There you go again with your crazy radical left wing thinking. Daylight photography! Pah! It'll never catch on!

Shhh go to bed! Keep it down now

rymus

I Will Not! I'll Be As Loud As I Damn Well Want To

440Hz

rymus wrote:

I Will Not! I'll Be As Loud As I Damn Well Want To

ssshhhhhh you'll wake shrimp he's been in bed since 9


[sory shrimp, couldnt resist ]

rymus

poor shrimp.. he's only a wee lad. Dont be making funnies at the expense of the wee lad. </scottish accent>

440Hz

oohhh far too late for funnies, or spelling properly zzzzzzzzz

bp_me

440Hz wrote:

Just shot about 20 images at various exposures and they are all the same! Very little difference... I must be doing something really stupid that I just dont realise

Just keep increasing the shutter speed. Eventually one will be properly exposed. Maybe use manual rather than aperature or shutter priority. I had some half decently exposed, but there was a whisp of cloud in the way so I wont be posting them.

mikeanywhere

Here is my 2nd attempt at taking moon pics. I only had my 70-200 so it was the best I could get but I feel pretty darn pleased with it myself.

The night before all my shots were miserable as I didnt have the right shutter speed. But last night I sat and played around. Must have some dodgy calls to the cops as I was taking them from the bedrood window.

Fionn

so i should cancel my subscription to the communist party and withdraw my support to make Michael D high priest of the emerald isle and then everything will be all right?


if only i had known eh!

photography is a complicated business innit!

rymus

your crazy thinking has caught on I'm afraid.. I'm about to go out and try my hand at some of this much lauded 'daylight photography'. I shall report back on my findings. As for supporting Michael D to become high priest, where do I sign?

Fionn

lol

go to his web site - talking about craziness

andy1249

This is my best attempt from last night , taken about 4 in the morning , steaming drunk , with my 20D and a 70 -200mm ,

440Hz

Right thats it... ive given up on moon photography.. in fact i have given up on all photography so... thats a whole bag of tricks available to mug me for

440Hz

Well.... another harvest moon so I decided to try again. I missed a wonderful shot around 7pm when the light was starting to go and i was driving home to Kerry. I was coming in just after Listowel, passing the windfarm and the moon was just over the turbines. It was huge, like a big beach ball in the sky. It wasnt safe to pull in so i had to keep on driving but it put me in a moon mood so I had to try again tonight.

first few goes were all milky bar discs again... i dont know what is wrong with me and the moon. Anyway, after some expert advice (cheers big ears) this is what i ended up with:






some more on flickr. anyway, just thought id update any curious people out there who sit every night thinking 'i wonder can she take a photo of the moon yet'... seems the answer is ... still.. not really, but getting there.

Thanks again for the help

blastman

Here's the best of mine (I think). Taken tonight on the east coast with a Lumix FZ5 on full (12X) zoom. Deliberately slightly under-exposed as I think it looks better than being too bright. First pic I've sent to the photography forum, so be gentle!