Some things not yet mentioned, or only mentioned briefly...

The moon moves much faster than we realize. You need a fairly fast shutter speed or you'll get motion blur. I'd recommend no less than 1/100.

As everyone has noted above, it's also brighter than most people realize. Set your camera to manual exposure, since it's likely any auto exposure will be overly influenced by the dark around the moon. As noted, the moon is simply reflecting sunlight. As such, it's about one stop less light than "daytime". So, starting from the "Sunny 16 rule" that says in broad daylight, a correct exposure will be f16 and a shutter (or "shudder") speed that's the reciprocal of the ISO you've chosen.

So to get 1/100 shutter speed, Sunny 16 says you can set f16 aperture and ISO 100... But we need another stop (approx.) open up the aperture to f8 (rather than going to a slower shutter speed).

What's really difficult is trying to make a scenic night shot that includes the moon... the dynamic range of from the bright moon to softly moonlight scene is way, way beyond the capabilities of most film and sensors. One thing you can is to combine two images. There is no way I could have made this shot in a single exposure....



For the above, the wolf was photographed with a 28-135mm lens and film camera and a flash, while the moon was shot digitally with a 500mm lens, 2X teleconverter and a Canon 10D DSLR (effective "full frame" equivalent focal length: 1600mm) on a very steady tripod. This was because of the very different exposure needs, plus there really was no way to capture both in a single image because of the wildly different distances to subject.

Alternatively, some sort of partial filtering and/or post-process dodging and burning of the image might be used. I guarantee you that Ansel Adams used some form of partial filtration and/or heavy dodging and burning to make a print of his "Moonrise Over Hernandez New Mexico" image (http://nikosono.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/ansel-adams-moonrise-hernandez-new-mexico1941.jpg)

Another "trick" is to shoot at dusk or pre-dawn, when the sky isn't fully dark yet and the foreground is still somewhat illuminated. If you want the moon to be against a dark sky, you can darken it and remove color in post-processing.

There are times when the moon is closer or further from the earth, when it can appear around 15% larger or smaller.

And, if the atmosphere is very clear, it can help to shoot the moon while it's low on the horizon. Shooting through more atmosphere has a sort of magnifying effect. You've probably noticed how large the moon looks when it's very low on the horizon.

These last three require some planning (and luck, for a clear evening). There are various moon calendars online, which have to be related to your particular location.



Wouldn't that be more of a "moon shot", if the model were facing the other way? ;)