Moon Photo - HELP!!!!!!

[RBennett]

Ok, so in my attempt to take photos of the moon/planets, I got NOTHIN'!! I need some help/advice on what I did wrong. I took the picture at every exposure stop from +3 to -3 and then tried to tweak them in RAW! This is the best one that I had:

So what did I do wrong???? If it helps, I used my Pentax K100D with my Tamron 70-300mm and I had to use manual focusing all the way.

 

[Frantasmic]

Use a tripod if you have one.

Then, you need to take the picture when the moon isn't overshadowing the stars (i.e., it's farther away from them).

Then, you need to take a really fast shutter, but you kind of have to experiment. Too fast, and you lose the stars. Too slow and the moon is too white.

Good luck.

I just tried it. I live in Texas, and at 7:18 PM CST, the moon was pretty far from the stars. I got a good moon shot at 1/160 shutter, but the stars wouldn't show up. So, if you can hold on about an hour. Try a shutter speed of about 1/100 or 1/80 with the stars and moon closer together.

 

[handicap18]

Keep in mind that the moon is a moving subject, so you can't really use a long exposure.

Best time to take a shot of the moon is when it is almost full or just past full. Spot metering on the moon works best. Use a tripod to keep the lens steady at the long end. The moon itself is VERY bright, but obviously the sky is VERY dark so you really need about a 1/250th shutter at f/8 or with a low ISO.

I've found its easier to focus on the edge then recompose to center the moon to take the shot.

This is the best I've gotten thus far:
ISO 400, 1/125th, f/11 at 300mm length

 

[YesDear]

What the other answerers have said. Remember when it is night on earth it is daytime on the moon. A reasonable regular daytime exposure is F16 at 125th of a second and ISO of 100 or 200. Start there.

This is one I took also at 300 mm. It has been cropped.

 

[boBQuincy]

The moon has an albedo (reflectance) of about 12%, close to a gray card. Start with the same exposure you would use for a bright sunny day and go from there. The "bright sunny day" rule is 1/iso at f/16, or exactly what YesDear wrote.

 

[RBennett]

What the other answerers have said. Remember when it is night on earth it is daytime on the moon. A reasonable regular daytime exposure is F16 at 125th of a second and ISO of 100 or 200. Start there.

This is one I took also at 300 mm. It has been cropped.

This is EXACTLY what I am shooting for. I was using a tripod and a shutter release so that my hand wouldn't shake the tripod/camera. And I kind of had the same thought/idea that everyone else did: faster shutter speed so that it's not so exposed. But it's the technical aspects and fine tuning that I was having a problem with. How many megapixels were you shooting with to be able to crop that much and get such great detail??

 

[zackiedawg]

YesDear and Handicap18 have it - follow that advice. I shoot the moon alot (I like it so much, I even have a moon gallery in my online galleries!) - the main points are: tripod, spot metering (or manual settings with smaller apertures and faster shutters), lower ISOs to keep it clean, and the longest glass you have.

Obviously, you have an optical advantage if you have a 400mm or 500mm lens, especially on a crop sensor. You may be surprised to see how good an ultra-zoom camera can pull off a moon shot too.

Here's one I shot with my A300 and my Tamron 200-500 lens at 500mm (750mm in 35mm equivalent with the 1.5x crop factor)...it was at F10 and 1/125 and ISO100:

Also...though full moons are easier to meter off of, remember that partially shadowed moons offer wonderful crater detail along the shadow edge. So don't be afraid to shoot half-moons and crescents.