Shoot the Moon?

jeffreaux2

I have seen some of you post excellent moon shots. I ,on the other hand have never done this sort of thing. We are setting up an upcoming "boys night" for our church youth group. WE will watch the lunar eclipse, and view some other things through a friends telescope. I would like to try some moon shots. I will have access to a couple zooms. An old 100-200, and a 70-300.....also 1 2x tele converter.

Now, where do I begin?

Exposures, Focusing, etc

Nikolai

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Now, where do I begin?
Exposures, Focusing, etc

it's all right here: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=64538

Tango

im subscribing to the thread so i can see what happens here.
i gave lunerscape a try once and had blown out shots...so i need help too...:D

aj986s

I found a handy moon exposure calculator at:
http://www.shaystephens.com/moon_calc.php

It helps you determine a set of exposure settings based upon the phase of the moon. Its amazing how much light is thrown off by a full moon!

During the last full moon, I tried to take some pics using the tripod, but the results were always overexposed. And as I tried making adjustments, the lens got foggy, and I gave up.

Next night, after reading the calculator, I found a settings combo that was fast enought to handhold (ISO 100, f8, 1/320). I tried a few shots without setting up the tripod, and got reasonable results, although I haven't uploaded any yet. I will try to post some of the results tonite.

gus

Plenty of info in this thread.


.

jeffreaux2

What about focal length.
I use a 1.6x crop camera, And have access to a 200-200 F4.5 zoom and a 70 -300 plus 2x converters. Where would you start with these items?

Nikolai

jeffreaux2 wrote:

What about focal length.

Reading is hard.
It's all covered in those posts...

ElginetPhotos

Shooting the moon 1 - This shot was taken from my car in a parking lot resting the lens on the window with a Nikkor 80-200 2.8. Settings were ISO 400 1/90 @2.8. It was shot in RAW, but didn't need a lot of processing.

Shooting the moon 2 - This was shot using my son's Celestron telescope with a Nikon camera adapter. A bit trickier. You MUST have the tripod on concrete AND sandbagged. The little bit of blur you see in this one was the result of shutter shake with a 3 second exposure at ISO 400.

Here's my suggestions.

1. Shoot the pictures when the moon is at it's lowest point (preferably rising). Shooting anything when the it's right overhead will be tough to get the exposure right.

2. If you're going to use a telescope, go for a high shutter speed, large aperature rather than long exposure and small aperature. It will move across the plane of the telescope so fast, anything less than 1/60 will probably show motion and with most digitals now, the additional noise you'll get in the photo will be negligible.

3. Use an electronic shutter release cable if possible to minimize any motion.

4. Bring sandbags for the tripod.

5. Shoot RAW (if your camera allows it) It'll give you a LOT more room for experimentation.

Here's a website that has a great program called Moon Phase, that really lets you pick your night in advance (providing the weather holds out...).


Good luck!!