"A Tale of Two Moons" or "How I learned what not to do when shooting a moonrise"

saltydog

After having come across many beautiful moon rises by surprise (yet never with a camera at hand or ready to shoot), I carefully planned - or so I thought - last night's shot and location and was already looking forward to awing my Facebook friends with a meticulously executed beauty of a pic of a full moon rising over silvery ocean waters ...

Which - you guessed it - did SO not happen on so many levels :scratch!

First, I discovered that my chosen location, a long fishing pier facing east, was inaccessible due to repairs and I had to quickly rethink where to go. Unfortunately the only place that came to mind with 4 minutes until moonrise involved a view of the lighthouse - which might sound romantic but turned out to be a big mistake because (and aside from MANY other technical flaws) ...


... I ended up with TWO moons instead of one!







Checking my 3" camera screen, I couldn't for the life of me figure out, where this mystery orb was coming from. I changed exposure, angle, attached lens hood, all to no avail. I even tried to eliminate the lighthouse altogether, which resulted in an even more detailed second moon this time on the OTHER side of the original, along with a stealth UFO :huh :




I finally concluded that my 2nd moon must be generated by the alternating convex/concave front and rear of the lighthouse lens - although I am still unclear on why it only shows through my lens - and at this point decided to surrender to the circumstances as well as to my completely numb fingers and just pack it up!



However, I haven't given up on my awesome full moon shot over silvery waters just yet and hope to apply next time what I have learned today along with some advice from all you more experienced night shooters here. Lessons learned last night were

- to scope out my location one or two days before the planned shot. To give me an idea where approximately will be rising and whether the area is accessible after dusk.

- to bring a flashlight with WORKING BATTERIES and if it's winter, to wear warm gloves!!! I found myself trying to change lenses and find the focus ring (note to self - auto focus doesn't work in the dark) in the pitch black while my fingers had gone completely numb even though the temps were above freezing - and couldn't do it! Couldn't find the lens release button or discern any focusing ring with absolutely no feeling in my fingers!

- preset my camera to exposure bracketing. Changing settings in the dark is a bitch.

- use a shutter release remote! Self timer is annoying - especially since I couldn't find the menu setting that changes the delay from 10 secs to 3. And manually releasing the shutter simply does not work with exposures of 1" and up...

Now wasn't that an insightful outing you might ask . But again: if you have any tips for me or some other kind of explanation for my two moons, please feel free to share!!!

kdog

Ha, pretty funny. The second moon and the UFO are reflections in your optics. The UFO is the reflection of the triad of bright lights in the center/lower portion of the photo on the horizon. The second moon, actually the almost properly exposed one, is a reflection of the massively blown-out real moon. The reflection lost so much light it's almost properly exposed. Fascinating.

Lessons learned is that photographing the moon in a landscape is really hard. You have too large of a dynamic range to capture in a single frame. Second lesson is take the UV filter off your lens to reduce reflections next time.

Crokey

I've always wondered what Pandora looked like at this time of year!

tsk1979

You will always get this with filters on. A very high quality filter will reduced it.
With no filter, it will be reduced.

With a very expensive lens, it will be very less.

argyle

saltydog wrote: »

- to scope out my location one or two days before the planned shot. To give me an idea where approximately will be rising and whether the area is accessible after dusk.

- to bring a flashlight with WORKING BATTERIES and if it's winter, to wear warm gloves!!! I found myself trying to change lenses and find the focus ring (note to self - auto focus doesn't work in the dark) in the pitch black while my fingers had gone completely numb even though the temps were above freezing - and couldn't do it! Couldn't find the lens release button or discern any focusing ring with absolutely no feeling in my fingers!

- preset my camera to exposure bracketing. Changing settings in the dark is a bitch.

- use a shutter release remote! Self timer is annoying - especially since I couldn't find the menu setting that changes the delay from 10 secs to 3. And manually releasing the shutter simply does not work with exposures of 1" and up...

Now wasn't that an insightful outing you might ask . But again: if you have any tips for me or some other kind of explanation for my two moons, please feel free to share!!!

Download a moonrise/sunrise application such as Photographer's Ephemeris (PE)...this will give you moonrise/sunrise times and angles for any location that you plug in and search. If you know that you'll be in a certain location during a specific time/date, this will tell you the moon's phase as well as the other info. Best of all, its free.

Also, pick up an inexpensive compass...this is used to match up the moon's angle with your location to determine the best composition. If the PE tells you that the moon will rise at 240 degrees, simply use your compass to see where 240 sets up...good way to check for obstructions, composition, etc.

I find the use of a LED headlamp to be better than carrying a flashlight. They're bright enough to light your path, and can be dimmed for using around the camera when setting up. It also keeps your hands free.

Needless to say, scoping out the shoot a day or two in advance is always a good idea...you'll know ehere to set up for the best composition and won't be rushed on the day of the shoot.

I try to shoot my moonrises before the sky goes completely black. If its a full moon, shooting a day or so BEFORE the full moon is typically best...at this time, the sun and moon are in the sky at the same time...in this manner, you're getting front lighting from the sun at the best time and can use daylight exposure settings...daylight settings also mean for much faster shutter speeds.

Example here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=212844