Rhare wrote:
I can never capture the moon as it looks. Any suggestions?
Kodak had it right. A good starting point for the moon is 1/iso at F16.
Because the moon is lit by the sun, it is actually a full day light exposure.
So, lets say you shoot at iso 250, so your BASE exposure would be 1/250 sec. at f16.
or, if you shoot at say iso 500, then your BASE exposure would be 1/500 sec. at f16
Some folks like to shoot the moon when it is low on the horizon and frame it with mountains, trees, houses, buildings etc. etc. etc.
Clouds always make a great composition shooting the moon.
You can vary from this BASE exposure of course to suit your taste.
Kodak used to have what they called, "moons in the refrigerator" when shooting the moon with film. First, you would take images with the moon and record where in the frame the moon appeared, then you would put your film away in the refrigerator until you wanted to take it out again and record a second image on top of that one. The trick was to remember where in each frame the moon appeared. The second exposure would record in the black of the sky, which did not get any exposure at all.
Of course, this moons in the refrigerator is no longer necessary with Digital images. Most camera's allow you to double expose when shooting RAW, consult your camera instructions on double exposures.
With Nikon they have a menu setting that allows you to do this.
Below is an example, I pre exposed the moon in one spot in the sky, about a month later I went to a balloon lighting at a local town. The result is below.
Enjoy and keep on shooting until the end.