Picture clarity: I have a canon 6Ti and was using 55-250 lens to take a picture of the big moon last night and could not get a clear picture. When I reviewed the picture it looked like...

mavrick8019

I have a canon 6Ti and was using 55-250 lens to take a picture of the big moon last night and could not get a clear picture. When I reviewed the picture it looked like a bright spot and not anything like the moon. Any ideas what I was doing wrong.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Sounds like you had a problem with exposure settings and ISO speed..

mavrick8019

What would be the best exposure setting and ISO speed to get the picture I want. I am pretty new to this.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Try this for ideas and google for similar research on technical how-to. Note the recommendation to shoot in manual at ISO-100, f/11 to f/16, 1/60 and to adjust from there. From experience, I can suggest remembering a flashlight too.

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

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

Keep in mind that the moon is in direct sunlight so the basic exposure will be 1/ISO @ f16.
All of the dark around the moon will fool your cameras light meter.

chaman

mavrick8019 wrote:

I have a canon 6Ti and was using 55-250 lens to take a picture of the big moon last night and could not get a clear picture. When I reviewed the picture it looked like a bright spot and not anything like the moon. Any ideas what I was doing wrong.

Probably poor knowledge of the exposure triangle. Shooting in AUTO to the Moon will come out as exactly that....a bright spot in the sky. Did you really think that all that it took to get a decent shot to the Moon was to aim a camera to it and press the shutter?

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

chaman wrote:

Probably poor knowledge of the exposure triangle. Shooting in AUTO to the Moon will come out as exactly that....a bright spot in the sky. Did you really think that all that it took to get a decent shot to the Moon was to aim a camera to it and press the shutter?

Depends on which scene mode one selects!

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

If you use a longer lens and set the camera to SPOT METERING you can get a correct exposure of the moon. As rwilson1942 says. "The moon is in direct sunlight" so it's exposure is just as if you were at the beach and taking a shot of the kids.

mavrick8019

Thanks chaman for your intuitive comments. Another example why I am hesitant to ask questions on here. As one of my school teachers always told me there's never a dumb question just a bigger dummy make fun of you for asking the question.

Thank you rwilson 1942 and CHG Cannon for helping me out.

chaman

mavrick8019 wrote:

Thanks chaman for your intuitive comments. Another example why I am hesitant to ask questions on here. As one of my school teachers always told me there's never a dumb question just a bigger dummy make fun of you for asking the question.

Thank you rwilson 1942 and CHG Cannon for helping me out.

Another example of how some here expect the AUTO function is all it takes. The reality is that photography is a bit more involved than that. Before asking about lenses, one should first have a firm understanding of what it takes to obtain a correct exposure. If the truth is too harsh, Im sorry....but its the truth.

chaman

rook2c4 wrote:

Depends on which scene mode one selects!

Correct, but still a basic knowledge of exposure is needed. Walk first....fly later.

LarryFitz Loc: Beacon NY

I was driving while the moon was rising, so I could not get take a picture until the moon was well up in the sky, therefore no perspective on it's size. I set the exposure compensation down 3 stops on the image shown. tried many different exposure compensation. My wife said they will have another super moon at end of January.

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Motorbones Loc: Fair Oaks, CA

I got my best shot last night shooting at ISO 100 with the Sigma 150-200 lens set at f:8 (D7500). Shutter was on auto (around 125 I believe).... There will be another supermoon around New Years Eve... I imagine that emergency services are in for a busy night this year... I like to call Green cheese at 221,566 miles..... The other thing I meant to add is that it took some research and trial-and-error practicing to have gotten this far... Still working on it too...

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blackest Loc: Ireland

LarryFitz wrote:

I was driving while the moon was rising, so I could not get take a picture until the moon was well up in the sky, therefore no perspective on it's size. I set the exposure compensation down 3 stops on the image shown. tried many different exposure compensation. My wife said they will have another super moon at end of January.

looney f11 suggests about 1/ 100th at f11 and iso 100

you had f5.6 1/250th and iso 6400

Thats 2 stops faster on aperture around a stop / stop and a half quicker thats call it 1 stop over exposed but your iso

100 200 400 800 1600 3200 6400 6 stops over exposed in total around 7 stops over exposed. Your camera thinks everything should be mid gray and it was desperately trying to bring up the black sky. f5.6 1/500th iso 100 might be too dark but somewhere between that and 1/250th would have been a good exposure of the moon. Exposure compensation is usually a max of 3 stops and you needed much much more. you needed to set the exposure manually. Controlling shutter speed aperture and iso.

If you can see the exif for some good moon shots they all should be pretty close to the same exposure value.

The shot below was f6.3 1/400 and iso 100 bit slower on the lens bit faster on the shutter speed much slower on the iso

f11 1/100 and iso 100 = ev14 (weak hazy sun)

f6.3 1/400 and iso 100 = ev14

f5.6 1/250 and iso6400 = ev 7

f8 1/250 and iso 100 = ev14.

http://endoflow.com/exposure/

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

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