Annie B Loc: Maryland

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

WoodnMetalGuy Loc: MN

No, I would think F4 would be fine. You'll want to use settings as you would for a sunny day, as the moon is bright. Typically there is a tendency to overexpose, leading to a blank white disc. Is that the symptom you're having? -- Dave

Annie B Loc: Maryland

Every pic looked like the moon was the sun OR the pic was underexposed. I started with ISO 800 1/250 F8 then I tried stopping down the aperture, increasing the ISO, decreasing the shutter speed...

blackest Loc: Ireland

No matter how near the moon gets it is still a tiny part of the sky at 70mm the moon is going to look barely bigger than with the naked eye. I'm assuming you are using a DSLR or M43 sensor size. Ironically a point and shoot may have a better chance of putting more pixels on the moon You would be better with a much longer lens. The moon is very bright in the sky unfortunately surrounded by a lot more dark. This will fool your camera into over exposing the moon. Some people composite moon shots using a short focal length to make the foreground small and a long focal length to make the moon bigger in comparison. Or another option can be to take a shot of say buildings from a long distance away and this makes the moon look larger in comparison. There are quite a few threads talking about shooting tonights moon. They may answer your questions better but its the focal length which is your main problem not the f-stop. The full moon is bathed in noon day sun and thats what you should expose for it is also moving quite fast so a higher shutter speed will be needed to freeze it.

Annie B Loc: Maryland

Unfortunately 70mm is the longest focal length I have. I did think about using my 28mm or 55mm primes on my A6300. The pictures I took were of the bright moon in landscape backgrounds. I knew I wasn't going to get much detail I just wanted it to be sharp. Thought it would look cool against the trees and the buildings

blackest Loc: Ireland

increasing the iso increases sensitivity if you keep iso constant and raise shutter speed you should reach a point where the moon is well exposed.
you will want manual settings as your camera will fight you trying to make a grey sky.

WoodnMetalGuy Loc: MN

I would expect that to get detail in the moon (craters, etc.) that the rest of your frame would be underexposed.

Referring to the 'sunny 16' rule would get you in the ballpark for a start - so you'd try F/16, ISO 200, shutter 200, for example. Sounds like increasing the ISO and decreasing shutter speed was taking you in the wrong direction.

What will be somewhat limiting is your focal length. The dramatic photos that you see where the moon looks huge are typically taken with a long telephoto lens. At 70mm the moon will be relatively small in your photo. But you can still work on the proper exposure.

-- Dave

Annie B Loc: Maryland

Should I be able to keep the ISO under 3200 with a clear picture?

delkeener Loc: SW Rhode Island, USA

Shooting the moon is like making a daylight beach shot. The full moon is getting daylight just the same as the beach.

Annie B Loc: Maryland

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

What? You increased the ISO from 800? You'll burn out your eyeballs. Lol. You needed to start out with a low ISO. Somewhere like 100-200. Start out with an aperture around F8 making sure you don't go below a shutter speed of 1/200sec. And then go from there, adjusting your aperture and shutter speed while keeping the ISO as low as possible. The "Sunny16" rule applies here also.

WoodnMetalGuy Loc: MN

And I just found out there is a corresponding 'looney 11' rule for moon photos. Same as 'sunny 16' for daylight photos, but uses F11 vs. F16. So, aperture f/11, ISO 200, shutter 1/200, for example. So that might be a better start for you. -- Dave

Annie B Loc: Maryland

Thanks! I'll try again tonight!!

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

You are way over exposing. Starting exposure should be the equivalent of f16 @ the inverse of the ISO: i.e. for ISO 100 use f16 @ 1/100

Bullfrog Bill Loc: CT

Try, ISO 200, f11-16 and 1/200 sec. That will be close for an exposure for the moon. Get is as soon as it comes over the horizon because as the sky gets darker your foreground will be way under exposed and you will need to bracket and combine with HDR. Also, if you have a foreground subject, watch the focus. For a clear moon shot, you will need to focus on the moon.