Moon shots: The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable. The moon and its reflextion werr like...

WDCash Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA

The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable.

The moon and its reflextion werr like headlights. Ahould I use a filter (circ. Pol.) to dampen the moon down to allow its lumination of the meadows show up?
What might be a good starting place ?

Thanks

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Spot meter on the moon.
(It's lit by daylight.)

nikonnate Loc: Woodbury MN

What's your metering set to?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

If the air was very clear (and the moon very bright), you might have had too much dynamic range to include light reflected on the meadow along with details in the moon. A graduated neutral density filter might have helped, or bracketed exposure merging. Do you have a pic to post so we can see what you were dealing with? Was the meadow included in the pic with the bay?

Quixdraw Loc: x

Two issues - the Moon itself and the Moon with Land or Seascape. Moon alone - Pie in the Sky, posted last night - ISO 1000, aperture, Spot, F11 @ 125th EF -0.3 as good a starting point as most. Adding the Landscape or Sea, will depend on the situation and light. Certainly metering other than spot, and in many cases additional light to pick up details. Couldn't find a Moon + Landscape / Sea shot or I'd post details. Good luck - once you get it worked out, easy!

Nicholas DeSciose

Polarizing filter? There’s nothing to Polarize. If you’re using it to tone down the scene just use a higher shutter speed.

Nicholas DeSciose

Also use a very steady tripod, and someway of tripping the camera , Remote release. What are you trying to accomplish cannot be done in one exposure. After you make a good exposure for the moon add at least two stops for the landscape. And then use one of the many options to combine them It’s possible that a simple cloning could put them together very fast bracket excessively. But work as fast as efficiently as you can

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Nicholas DeSciose wrote:

Polarizing filter? There’s nothing to Polarize. If you’re using it to tone down the scene just use a higher shutter speed.

Which will darken the entire scene. It's all about dynamic range:
https://digital-photography-school.com/understanding-dynamic-range-photography/

(edit - I see you gave additional information in your second entry while I was typing; thanks

)

WDCash Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA

Thanks to all

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

WDCash wrote:

The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable.

The moon and its reflextion werr like headlights. Ahould I use a filter (circ. Pol.) to dampen the moon down to allow its lumination of the meadows show up?
What might be a good starting place ?

Thanks

The moon is lit by the sun, so it will be way brighter than objects lit by the moon. You could do a composite of the moon correctly exposed and the moonlit scene.

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

WDCash wrote:

The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable.

The moon and its reflextion werr like headlights. Ahould I use a filter (circ. Pol.) to dampen the moon down to allow its lumination of the meadows show up?
What might be a good starting place ?

Thanks

Whoops, please disregard this post.
Smile,
Jimmy T Sends

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

WDCash wrote:

The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable.

The moon and its reflextion werr like headlights. Ahould I use a filter (circ. Pol.) to dampen the moon down to allow its lumination of the meadows show up?
What might be a good starting place ?

Thanks

Reduce your exposure until you get it right. A polarizer will cut reflections but not help you in this situation.

If you want to get the moon exposed properly, and you want to get the moonlit landscape, that will require two exposures, and a merge where you add the moon to the moonlit landscape.

A good place to start with for a full moon would be 1/60 @F5.6, ISO 100, or some combination that provides the same exposure. A partial moon will appear crisper with more crater detail because the light is hitting the moon at more of an angle. A partial moon will also require additional exposure, from 1 stop (for a gibbous) to up to 3 stops (for a crescent). There are many variables that will affect your exposure choices, so trial and error is a great way to get the best shot.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Longshadow wrote:

Spot meter on the moon.
(It's lit by daylight.)

This will give you a gray moon. Adding 1 stop to the reading will make the moon brighter.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

WDCash wrote:

The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable.

The moon and its reflextion werr like headlights. Ahould I use a filter (circ. Pol.) to dampen the moon down to allow its lumination of the meadows show up?
What might be a good starting place ?

Thanks

I tried to shoot the moon last night as well and my results were less than desirable.

Several things:

Although my sky looked some what clear it had a slight haze.

Full moons lack detail as there are few if any shadows as opposed to partial moons (side light). Low angle shots can be less sharp than high angle in the same conditions because of the amount of atmosphere involved.

Since you didn't post images I can only speculate but suspect you just had poor conditions and perhaps you were over exposed.

Cold months usually have clearer skies, but there are exceptions. Skip the full moons and do partials.

Here is a recent moon shot.

(Download)

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

WDCash wrote:

The full moon reflecting on the bay was beautuful last night. I tried to photograph it and my reaults were way less then acceptable.

The moon and its reflextion werr like headlights. Ahould I use a filter (circ. Pol.) to dampen the moon down to allow its lumination of the meadows show up?
What might be a good starting place ?

Thanks

The moon is a brightly lite object, same as a scene on earth around noon. The base exposure for the full moon is 1/iso at f16. So, if your iso is 125, then your base exposure is 1/125 at f16. Again, this is a staring point. You have a digital camera so you can adjust up or down based on your view of the first shot.