How to photograph the moon
Shooting the moon is actually much easier than you might think. Here is how I approached it:
Focal Length:
First you need a focal length of ~300mm. I actually talked myself out of not buying new camera equipment (there is a first time for everything) and got away with a 200mm with a 1.4 telecoverter giving me a focal length of 280mm.
ISO:
You want to put your ISO as low as possible. In my case I used ISO100. I actually tried ISO 50 but the 100 shot looked better.
Aperture:
You’ll want to set your aperture at f/11 to make sure you capture all of the details in the moon’s surface.
Additional Setting:
I set my camera into Live View mode, I manually focused using the LCD screen and zooming in 10x and then released with Profoto Airsync remote release, all sitting on a Manfrotto 055CX3 with two 3KG weights to keep everything stable.
Post Processing:
In Photoshop CS5, I adjusted the curves to medium contrast and applied an unsharp mask filter (amount 150%, radius 1.0, threshold 0)
Summary of the settings:
Canon 5DMKII, Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L, 1.4x teleconverter, 1/125, f/11, ISO100, shot in Live View, manually focused, released with Profoto Airsync.
Give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised…
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Hi, I visited your shoottokyo.com, good, informative. I am a photographer from India/Ahmedabad. I like your site.
Miranda – Try manually focusing for a while. I do that 99% of the time and find it really improves my photographs.
Carrie – Exactly! For me the problem usually happens when I use my longer lens, and I always think Im just not keeping it steady enough… but it happens even with short exposures, well-lit places, and on a tripod. Maybe I should blame the lens, but it’s the exact same brand as my shorter lens which Im more pleased with. Basically, yes, stuff looks good but not as crisp as professional images I see.
Anthony – Your picture looks great to me!
Dave – Thanks for the tutorial and I’m going to try out that mask now.
The results were actually pretty good for my first attempt, I guess I’m just looking for perfection
I’ll try the filter tonight, and thanks again for your time!
Dave, thanks for responding. I haven’t edited the image yet but so I haven’t used that tool. I’m fairly new to PS but I’ll try it. Does this mean that getting a really crisp image must be done post?
Carrie – Are you applying an unsharp mask after? That would probably help you assuming you were steady on a tripod.
It looks really good Anthony. Great job. I would leave the edges around the photo more (i.e. 4×6) as I think the empty space adds a lot to the photo.
Ahh, so the comments are posting despite the error msgs…
@ Miranda. I also have a rebel (T2I). I used the Cannon EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM Lens and following settings: Exposure 0.01, Aperture f/11, Focal Length 300 mm, ISO Speed 100. Didn’t use any additional weight on the tripod either. I was fairly impressed with the results for a 1st Attempt.
You can see it here: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/sloanys/6141137964/in/photostream/
Great little Tutorial ! Thanks
Miranda, I shot the moon last night with my Rebel and had exactly the same problem. Actually, I almost always seem to have a problem with getting my images really, really crisp and have been wondering if it’s me or the camera.
I followed your instructions to the letter (except for weighting down the tripod, don’t know how to do that… and I did the two-second timer because I don’t have a remote) and the exposure looks great but the focus isn’t quite there… better than I’ve gotten in the past, and the hint to use the Live View screen to manually focus was really helpful… but its nowhere near as good as yours. The big crater in the bottom-right of your moon is only barely visible in mine for example. Is it just because my equipment (Canon EOS Rebel) isn’t quite as good, or is there something I can do better?
Otherwise great guide!! Thanks!
Great. Tried this Friday.. Worked perfect. Thanks. Keeping this short as had problems uploading comments from iPhone. Probably won’t work again :0(
Tom – sure, you can do OK, just shoot Raw and blow up the photo. It will be pretty good. You’ll need to use a tripod.
Glad you like it Mike…
Cool and easy to follow tutorial! Will have to give this a try sometime. Really enjoying your posts so far
Finally an easy to understand “tutorial” on shooting the moon! We get some really pretty views of the moon here in South Dakota. One quick question: What setting do you use for your shutter speed? I’m using manual mode and have the option to change my shutter speed. My gear: Canon T1i, EF 55-250MM zoom lens…Thanks for any help!!!
for all of those, who don’t have such great equipment: i tried taking a photo of the moon with a standard 50-200 mm lens by pentax and got a pretty nice result too. i didn’t have my tripod on me, so i had to shoot with the camera in my hand, so i had about f/5 1/1000 or 1/800 and the results are pretty good for this barbaric stlye of shooting. so if you just want to give it a try, just do it and don’t wait for the right gear.
I’ve always wondered how to shoot the moon with good results. Thanks for reminding me that I can’t afford $6K worth of gear to do it. You did obtain spectacular results. Almost looks like you had a telescope.
I am a newbie, and am starting to produce some images that I’m proud enough to share with others. Check them out at my website and kindly offer your candid feedback if you would.
Keep on shootin’ Bro!
Really nice! Congratulations! I’m from Brasil and just bought a Canon 60D with 18-200mm standart kit lens. Do you think I can reach this results with this combo?
Nice write up man, I’ll have to try this.
Thank you Dave
Hi Jacqueline – I don’t have anything on rain drops but I did a little write up on light that you can read HERE.
Hi Tom – you need to shoot in manual to get the correct exposure. I tried a few different settings and this one seemed to work the best. If you have live view on your camera use that to see the exposure. The moon’s own light blowing it out will be because it was over exposed. Manually you can set the exposure just for the moon vs. in automatic where it is trying to balance it against the dark sky.
Thanks Kelly. Let me know how it goes for you. I was pretty excited when I did my first moon shot.
Beautiful!! I love it!! Thank you SO much for posting- I can’t wait for a clear night to try this. I have always wanted to!
Were you shooting in manual? If so, how did you decide on 1/125s? I’ve only gotten one moon shot that I really liked, and I ended up having to shoot it at f/22 (or more) on bulb, and using a magazine over the lens instead of the shutter – because when I tried using larger apertures, the moon’s own light blew out the details.
Oh, good to know. Will try that out with my new 250mm when I get the chance!
Hello Dave,
Thank you, this was very helpful!
Do you have instructions on how to photograph lighting? and rain drops?
I have a Nikon 3100.
Thank you kindly!
[...] how to shoot the moon. Dave Powell’s blog http://www.shoottokyo.com has a great set of instructions on how to photograph the moon which is pretty much what I did (though going from memory, I changed a couple of [...]
Nothing as you won’t be shooting that big of an aperture.
I needed this info three days ago but there’s always next month. There is, isn’t there? BTW, If I’m using a f4.0 L instead of the f2.8 what will be the effective difference?