Photographing the moon...tips?

Merrion

There's a lunar eclipse this weekend - any tips for photographing it?

Fenster

Don't bother unless you have a Big Frakking Lens, as you won't see that much on your sensor or on film. Anything above 200mm will be good if you crop.

CrowdedHouse

Set the camera to spot meter

leinsterman

Taking sharp pictures of the moon can be tricky without the right equipment.

I'm not 100% sure how it will be affected light wise in an eclipse but it is normally very bright and small compared to everything around it ... therefore it can be difficult to get a good meter reading even in spot mode so that you can expose correclty ... very often this can be hit and miss ...

Things to consider -

The moon is moving surprisingly fast so you need a relatively short exposure ideally less than 1s... you can adjust ISO upwards to 400 or 800 to reduce exposure time but not on a Nikon with their noisy ccd's ;-) ... realistically if you can use 200 then do ... F stop is not so important from a dept of field perspective since you are shooting at infinity you can use what you like to get a short exposure... F11.0 normally gives you less than 1s ... but I never shot in an eclipse so I suspect this will have a marked effect.

Use the longest lens you have ... I have a 400mm with a 1.6 teleconvertor on a 20d which is a 1.6 crop ... this gives an effective 1000mm ... even at this magnification the moon just about fills the metering circle so I can get away with using centre weighted or spot settings and get correct exposure reading ... failing that it is a bit hit and miss and I'd recommend you bracket for a given f-stop by taking a few different exposures ... and use RAW, this gives you more latitude in the post processing.

Obviously if using a long lens to take something so small with a long exposure which is also moving you need stability ... therefore Use a tripod. In addition you can gain extra stability by using a cable release and the mirror lock up function of you camera (if it has one) ... if you don't then use the timer ...

Stephen

Here's one I took this evening:

as seen on flickr

Had my D50 on tripod with Sigma 70-300 lens at 300. That's cropped up to the max too - the above image is 1:1 at 6mp.
exif data:
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/32
Focal Length: 300 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/6 EV
ISO Speed: 200

Took a few attempts to get it right. Had to fool about with the exposure compensation a lot.

Valentia

Start with 250/sec @f5.6 at ISO 200. If you are using digital you can review that one and adjust accordingly. I have checked some of my moon pics and that is around the ballpark settings. Zoom in in the viewfinder if you can to check the detail after each shot. Shoot RAW and you will have a little room to adjust afterwards as well.
Moon: A bit noisy now that I look at it but still..........

Stephen

That is pretty awesome. What lens did you use?

Fenster

Ten euros says it's his 100-400 IS

Valentia

Fenster wrote:

Ten euros says it's his 100-400 IS

Who's been peeping?

It's a cropped shot from the 100-400 on a 10D with a 2x converter. This works out around 1280mm I think.

This is the uncropped version: Click on it for a larger jobbie.

leinsterman

f10, iso 200, 300mm, 1/100



f18, ISO 200, 520mm, 1/80

CrowdedHouse

Here's one I took an hour ago 100% crop 300mm lens 1600 iso 1/4000 F8




and the original as it looked out of the camera

Stephen

1280mm? I think that qualifies as a telescope

Xios

So i'm fairly rogered with my 40-150 olympus lens

projectmayhem

Merrion wrote:

There's a lunar eclipse this weekend - any tips for photographing it?

point up.

thank you.

TelePaul

Hey guys...I've been pretty mcuh blow away by what's been done here. Amazing stuff altogether.

But what's the bare minimum I need? 300m lens at the least? And Leinsterman, did you refer to both a short and long exposure?

Sorry to ask such silly questions but this stuff is so impressive.

Xios

Hey, I went out just there and tried my hand at this, i used my dad's old olympus with a huge lens and x2 magnifier, but it's a film camera, so i've gotta wait for them.
But with my digi cam i ran into trouble, my shots turned out like this.

and


Big white blobs, is this an apeture problem? or something else?

Zillah

Valentia for the win! Lovely shot there.

Xios, you're probably metering off the black sky so its completely over exposing. That or its just a really crappy camera...

Try pointing right at the moon so it can meter that rather than the empty sky.

Calina

Last year's lunar eclipse:

Exposure: 0.8 sec (4/5)
Aperture: f/32
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed 200

_____________________



full moon:

Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 500 mm
ISO speed 100

rabbitinlights

Sorry its so big, this was taken on a 350D with the sigma 70-300mm APO (@300m)

Redundo

There are some beautiful shots here, but take a look at this.......




Pity its not mine.
*Sigh

It was done using multiple exposures on a film camera, one about every 10mins! I don't have much experience with anything like this and it looks ridiculously tricky to do, but i'm thinking of trying it tomorrow night. It could also be done digitally and blended which would probably make things easier on the night, but a lot of work once you get back home....

You can find a description of the photo technique above, and other stuff at this site


*EDIT: I just realised something. There's about 6 hours work in that shot..... hmmm somehow even if i had that stamina (or that much hot coffe) I don't think the Irish weather would oblige. Maybe I should set my sights a little lower!
:

leinsterman

Stephen wrote:

1280mm? I think that qualifies as a telescope

Not quite ... but I do have a photo of golfball on the moon with the initials A.S. monogrammed on it


Actually it is the same 100-400 that Valentia has with a 1.6 Teleconvertor on a 1.6 crop camera 400 * 1.6 * 1.6 = 1024 ... or in Valentias case 1280 with the 2X

m_stan

Try manual mode, iso 100, f11, 130 shutter speed.

Redundo

Eh, what a waste of time. Within about 15minutes of getting set-up it was obvious we weren't going to see much. Clouds started to obscure the moon and as the eclipse progressed it was getting worse. At full eclipse I could just about make out the orange-colour of the moon, but to be honest half the time I thought I was imagining it.

leinsterman

OK, great sky last night perfect for shooting the eclipse ... I posted a full sequence of the Eclipse on my flickr ... Follow this link -
Lunar Eclipse Sequence
Be gentle!!!

Doc Farrell

Beautiful shots, very nice.

just for the laugh I took one hand held for about 15 seconds exposure. It came out as an orange question mark, which seems quite apt, i guess.

its a wonderous subject when you've the skill to do it properly, shooting the moon that is, not holding a camera for 15 seconds.

edit: stunning Leinsterman, and some good karma from Jesus towards the end for you too. a win/win situation.