PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

I was getting ready to photograph the equinox full moon using the ‘Bulb’ setting on my D750. But for some reason the moon didn’t appear.
But I took this photo of Venus. It was about 20:30 on the 21st. About 3 seconds exposure, auto ISO, and on a tripod (of course).
Much edited!

(Download)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice shot. As for the moon being a no-show, I think it's holding out for more money.

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Unless you want to blur it a lot, don't use a long Bulb exposure to photograph the moon. B is only required for more than 30 seconds and the moon moves waaaayyy too fast for anything close to that and will just end up a blurred streak of light in your images.

In fact, the moon is much brighter than people realize. It's reflected sunlight and only one or two stops less than "sunny 16" that's used in broad daylight (which tells us to use a shutter speed the reciprocal of the ISO while lens aperture is set to f/16).

If you want a sharp shot of the moon with detail, you might use 1/60, 1/125 shutter speed... ISO of 100 or 200... aperture around f/8 or f/11.

It also depends upon how clear the night is and where the moon is in the sky when you photograph it. Low on the horizon the the moon is seen through more atmosphere, which makes it seem larger at the same time it's about one stop less bright. Higher in the sky on a clear night requires the above settings. (Experiment with them.)

If you are also trying to capture the darker scene locally too, you probably need to make two exposures.... a faster one like that described above and a second, longer exposure for the scenery. Later combine the two images in post-processing. There's simply too much difference (dynamic range) between the dark local scenery and the bright moon for any camera to capture. Sometimes you can overcome to an extent by photographing the moon at twilight or shortly before sunrise, when the sky isn't entirely dark and there's more light on the surrounding scenery.

There are apps for smart phones especially that can be very helpful planning moon shots. One I use is called "The Photographer's Companion". It tells you moon phase along with moonrise and moonset times for your specific location. It also gives you a preview of the moon's size in your particular image.

For example, if I use a 500mm lens on my APS-C format camera set to f/8 with an ISO of 200, it shows that the moon will be fully visible in the image area (and then some... I could use a longer lens or a teleconverter on this one) and advises me to initially try 1/20 shutter speed. However, based on my location (west coast of the US) it also tells me that the moon will only be out during the daytime, so it's just not a good time to be trying to photograph it. The program also recommends I adjust the ISO to at least 800 if I want to try to handhold the shot (above settings assume I use a tripod). And, at the other extreme, to prevent motion blurring of the moon it recommends no slower than 1/4 second shutter speed (unless I use some sort of astral tracking mechanism), but to shoot that slow that would require a very small lens aperture and very low ISO (or possibly even a neutral density filter). For sharpest shots with best possible detail, try not to use smaller than f/11 aperture. Any smaller (f/16, f/22, etc.) introduces "diffraction" that causes loss of fine detail in images. The smaller the aperture, the worse diffraction effects images. (Google for more info if you want it.)

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

Alan, what a fabulous reply. Thank you. I have read it quickly but had my mind on saying ‘thanks’ rather than reading it carefully and absorbing what you wrote. What I haven’t yet done and I need to find out the details is taking more than one photo and combining them into one post-processed shot. I use PhotoLab 4.

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

And I have now read it more carefully and taken a few notes. Once again, thank you!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You might find this helpful. It does a much better job than me explaining things:

https://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-photograph-the-moon/

I am not familiar with Photolab 4. To combine multiple images, you need an editing program that can work in "layers". There are many of those.... maybe Photolab is one of them.

The following is a composite of two images done in Photoshop. The moon shot was done with a 500mm lens with 2X teleconverter on an APS-C format DSLR... equiv. to 1600mm on full frame). The wolf was photographed a couple years earlier with a 28-135mm lens, a flash and a film camera. That film image was later scanned into digital.



Above has been printed 11x14" and would be absolutely impossible to do in a single shot. Even though the moon image was done with a digital camera that only had 6MP resolution, it seemed a little too sharp and detailed in the background, so I ended up blurring it down slightly.

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

I am sure PhotoLab does layers and still haven’t had a chance to research how it is done. But that photo of the wolf and the moon is both beautiful and inspires me to keep on learning!!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some helpful links about night photography.

https://digital-photography-school.com/how-create-dynamic-car-light-trail-photos/
http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/meteor.photography/
https://digital-photography-school.com/night-photography/
https://digital-photography-school.com/tips-for-getting-proper-exposure-for-night-photography/
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/10-essential-tips-night-photography
https://www.lifewire.com/tips-for-nighttime-photography-492831

PaulBrit Loc: Merlin, Southern Oregon

Thanks Jerry. That’s a lot to read through!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, it certainly is. I'm sure they'll be lots of repetition, but probably some new things, too.