F4 lens too slow for the full moon tonight? (Page 2): You should do bracketing. Take 2-3 photos with different shutter speed and make them into one. If you get the exposure of the moon...

JPL

Annie B wrote:

Thanks! I'll try again tonight!!

You should do bracketing. Take 2-3 photos with different shutter speed and make them into one. If you get the exposure of the moon correct then the rest of the pic will be mostly black, if you get everything else about correct the moon will be white. There fore you need at least 2 pictures. If you know how to use bracketing do that. If not, take 2 photos and adjust this manually.

repleo Loc: Boston

I used my 50-210 on my A6000 last night. Just the moon - no foreground. I set the camera on Manual and manual focus. ISO 100, F8 or F11 and adjusted the exposure time until I was happy with the image in live view - probably about 1/200. Focus peaking should show the edge of the moon, but you can get better focus by using the lope feature. Use a sturdy tripod and turn off OSS if you have it.
The moon was still very small even extended to 210, but it should give me a decent crop.

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

Annie B wrote:

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

F4, 1/160, ISO 100 - 600mm F4 on a D800. Your focal length is too short to get just an image of the moon. So you'll have to resort to including some foreground, possibly just after sundown, when there is enough light in the sky to illuminate the landscape.

Sunny 16, Sunny 11 and Looney 8 are not going to work as a final exposure combo, but I would start with Looney 8 - it's the closest to what will work. In this case it was something like Sunny 6.3. The reason is that the moon is a rock. A dark rock. It reflects less light. You can use a spot meter, but then you'd have to expose 1-2 stops less than the reading, to ensure that the highlights aren't blown. Sunny 16 and 11 are not going to be bright enough. I'd love to see a shot posted that was taken at F16. 1/100 and ISO 100, from anyone who is suggesting that they use the Sunny 16 rule.

(Download)

tdekany Loc: Oregon

OP - since you have a mirror less camera, it should be easy to get the right exposure unlike people with DSLRs. Lowest ISO f8 should be fine and use exposure compensation until the moon looks properly exposed. I know it is too late for tonight, but you can continue practicing starting tomorrow.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Annie B wrote:

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

No.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Annie B wrote:

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

No!!!!!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Annie B wrote:

Every pic looked like the moon was the sun OR the pic was underexposed. I started with ISO 800 1/250 F8 then I tried stopping down the aperture, increasing the ISO, decreasing the shutter speed...

Try ISO 800, f/11, 1/800 sec with 400mm to 800mm. 16-70mm is far to short a lens for the Moon. Unless you mean to shoot a scenic / landscape with just a small Moon in the background.

tgreenhaw

F4 lens is no problem but you will want a decent telephoto. I really don't think its possible to get a usable exposure on the foreground with the right exposure to show the moon's detail. Try taking two shots and using something like photoshop to combine them. I took a couple of quick shots last night and that's the solution I came up with.

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

mate I was at iso 800 , shutter 1000 @ 16 or 8 . a6000 60mm 2.8 sigma

Annie B wrote:

Unfortunately 70mm is the longest focal length I have. I did think about using my 28mm or 55mm primes on my A6300. The pictures I took were of the bright moon in landscape backgrounds. I knew I wasn't going to get much detail I just wanted it to be sharp. Thought it would look cool against the trees and the buildings

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Annie B wrote:

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

Use:

A tripod.
Full Manual mode
Lowest possible ISO
1/ISO as shutter speed
f/11, but bracket in 1/3 stop intervals +/- one full stop

Forget about recording any foreground or background detail unless you make a separate LONG exposure and composite the two images.

sinderone

Last night I got pretty good photos of the moon using a 300 f4.5. Through trial and error I arrived at iso 100, f22 and shutter 1650. Even if these exact settings don't work to your satisfaction they will give you a good starting point. Good luck!

Wayne P

You need to use spot metering so you are not metering the dark sky.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Annie B wrote:

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

You should be thinking about using your IN CAMERA Clear Image Zoom and IN CAMERA 3 exposure HDR ! - from a tripod of course.

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

Do you know how to see your camera settings on your computer? Speed of lens F 4 is only one control. ISO can be set to 800, 1600 without a problem. Also shutter speed can be slower, but you need a tripod of you do this. Also the brightness of the moon is the same as the our earth at noon. The camera thinks you are taking the black sky around the moon and over exposes the moon. Good luck. David

PS If you post samples and click on "store original" we can see your settings and advise you better.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Annie B wrote:

I tried taking some full moon pics last night as a trial run with my 16-70 f/4 lens. I could not get a good picture no matter what settings I tried... Is the f4 lens too slow to take these kind of pictures?

I am on my phone so no pics but Sunday night I took several moon shots at ISO 200, 1/200th sec. at f16. They came out perfect exposure wise. So f4 is plenty fast. Could be something else.