Shoot the moon
Is the only way to get a good picture of moon plus background by combining two shots with a photo editor?
I've been an amature photographer for 37 years. I have gotten some good shots against a blue sky, but if it's night the contrast is always too great. It often looks like I took a picture of a street light. If I shoot manual, I can get the moon, but there is no background at all.
Try spot meter on the moon, should come somewhere close to 1/1000 shutter, f20 ISO 400-800, then bracket your shots from the meter reading. Also, if it isn't a perfect full moon, you'll get better definition of the craters as the shadows give more depth.
I still haven't gotten the shot I want, but am getting a lot closer. Just too cold on clear nights here in Michigan.
Good luck!
Yea, you should expose the moon for a sunny daylight shot to eliminate the "light bulb" effect. Spot metering works better as averaging will over expose the moon because it includes the dark area of the scene. If at night, there is not enough light to light the rest of the area (scenery).
Spot meter--ISO & shutter speed the same setting(ISO 200,SS 200) Aperture approximately 5.6. as starting points. You can vary all these settings but keeping ISO and SS the same values is recommended. Remember it's the moon you are shooting and it's like shooting here on a sunny day.
Bob
duncanwinn wrote:
Is the only way to get a good picture of moon plus background by combining two shots with a photo editor?
I've been an amature photographer for 37 years. I have gotten some good shots against a blue sky, but if it's night the contrast is always too great. It often looks like I took a picture of a street light. If I shoot manual, I can get the moon, but there is no background at all.
You might find it easier to take moon image during the day. You don't get as much noise and believe it or not, they do turn out great.
duncanwinn wrote:
Is the only way to get a good picture of moon plus background by combining two shots with a photo editor?....
If by background you mean a distant horizon then yes, that should be doable. However, when the moon's close to the horizon you're seeing it through the maximum amount of atmosphere so it'll tend to be hazy, even on a clear night.
If you want to include close foreground stuff along with the moon, the best way to get good results is to do a composite.
I always use exposure compensation to reduce the amount of light entering the camera. That way, I don't have to have the ISO too high. It takes a bit of practice to get the exposure right. You also need a fairly long lens.
The final result of having a "big" moon in a photo is achieved by creating a composite.
Go out when it is not a full moon, make notes of your settings and work it until you have a full moon. By then you should have the settings figured out. Remember to reset the exposure compensation back to your normal setting when done. Probably best to use manual focus as well. The camera won't accurately auto focus and will drive you crazy.
Have fun learning. In case anyone didn't mention it, ALWAYS use a tripod. Anyone who is properly getting a photo hand held is the absolute most statue like being in the world. Most of us are not that still.
duncanwinn wrote:
Is the only way to get a good picture of moon plus background by combining two shots with a photo editor?
I've been an amature photographer for 37 years. I have gotten some good shots against a blue sky, but if it's night the contrast is always too great. It often looks like I took a picture of a street light. If I shoot manual, I can get the moon, but there is no background at all.
Hand held Nikon D810, 600mmF4, ISO 12800, F5.6 @ 1/5000 matrix metered.
I was playing around with settings, this was the best result.
Always remember when you are shooting the moon you are actually shooting the sun. You are going to have to tell your camera what to expose for and ignore its suggestions. The camera will want to expose for dark. You must be in manual and expose off of the moon, then compose.
I've found that ISO 200, 1/125, @ f8 is about right for a full moon.
and
ISO 1,000, 1.6 seconds, @ f5.6 is about right for a total lunar eclipse.
As has been said, Manual exposure is what I use as a good part of the frame is going to be dark and your in camera meter is apt to over expose the moon.
Karen's right. Moonlight is reflected sunlight. Spot metering with my (ancient) D200 and Nikon 80-200 D 2.8 resulted in overexposing the moon. Still have to compensate by less exposure.
The moon shot was taken recently, but the landscape(moonscape) was a long time ago. The landscape shot below was taken at night with a full moon. Shutter speed was between 4 and 5 minutes, aperture was probably f4, FILM was probably Fuji Reala 100.
https://flic.kr/p/S3E9m6https://flic.kr/p/amkF1Y
joer
Loc: Colorado/Illinois
duncanwinn wrote:
Is the only way to get a good picture of moon plus background by combining two shots with a photo editor?
I've been an amature photographer for 37 years. I have gotten some good shots against a blue sky, but if it's night the contrast is always too great. It often looks like I took a picture of a street light. If I shoot manual, I can get the moon, but there is no background at all.
There are any number of settings that will get a good moon shot. I prefer selecting the shutter speed and aperture manually and allowing the camera to choose the ISO. I always use spot meter and fine tune with exposure comp. Here is an example:
It is a nice, clear sky so I shot this hand held a few minutes ago using a D500, AF-P DX 70-300MM lens @ 300MM, 1/400, f8, ISO360, -3 exp. comp. I added a little contrast, noise reduction and sharpening (don't over look PP).
bdk
Loc: Sanibel Fl.
when shooting the moon at night, you are shooting a reflection from the sun. I usually shoot f8 and something around 1/200
the pic below was just experimenting with different settings its F14, 1/30 sec, ISO 64
duncanwinn wrote:
Is the only way to get a good picture of moon plus background by combining two shots with a photo editor?
I've been an amature photographer for 37 years. I have gotten some good shots against a blue sky, but if it's night the contrast is always too great. It often looks like I took a picture of a street light. If I shoot manual, I can get the moon, but there is no background at all.
Looking at your moon I do not see an anchor to the ground of any sort, was that your intent, just a full moon? If you want to get that larger moon in the landscape photo one good way to do that is to figure out that time when the moon rises early and the sun has not yet set; this allows for enough light in the sky to get the shot. We just had a few days of that period and Friday is the last day for that. You then need to figure out where the moon will come up and if there is a backdrop to anchor the moon at that site, you can do this based on places you have already shot. I'm learning a program called Photopills for iPhone and iPad, not sure about other devices. The Photographers Ephemeris may work out, too. I just shot the moon yesterday and the day before (6-6 & 6-7) in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I used 100 ISO and a long lens and f/16 for the most part. I focused on the full moon for exposure and focus, which would actually be standard for digital photography as the exposure should be on the brightest part of the image. Here are a few photos, the smaller moon on the first day and the larger moon (set my camera to cropped frame) the second day:
Shot this with my new Nikon Coolpix P900 on a tripod. First attempt after buying a couple of days before. All camera, no editing. Was set in AUTO mode.
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