Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Shoot the Moon made simple... No Mumbo-Jumbo


Happy Wednesday from Prospect.

Here's the simplest description of how to shoot the moon.

I've recently viewed a lot of overly complicated how to's to shoot the moon. Everyone goes on about how hard it is to shoot.

It's simple. Don't shoot it as if it were night. It's high noon on the moon so shoot it as if it were the middle of the day.
Heck, you could probably shoot using the rule of 16 and get it. Or at least be close.

Original HighRes Jpeg (5616 x 3744). Canon 5D mark II, Canon 70-200 II f2.8,  ISO 320, f5.6 at 1/500th
High focal length will help for detail. 200mm plus will work, aperture should be at the lenses sweet spot (f2.8 lens is usually f5.6 or f8). Shutter should be no less than the focal length, 200mm = minimum 1/200th sec. ISO around your usual for daylight. 400 usually works well.

The shot you see in this post was shot at 200mm, ISO 320, f5.6 and 1/500th, hand held (no tripod, although it would't hurt to stabilize at that focal length.

I cropped in as much as possible afterwards to get my composition and converted to black and white. Done.

If you want this kind of detail with a night shot of skyline then you need to shoot two shots for correct exposure and marry them in your favourite editing software,

Thinks about it. That moon is at least 2 stops brighter than dusk. I mean it's high noon up there with the sun straight on the surface and reflecting at an acute angle to us.

Anyway, hope this helps, it did for me once I got the duh moment over with.

Photos below compare two f-stops (5.6 is the sweet spot for this one)

Enjoy, Derek
100% enlargement of original jpegs. f4.0 on left, f5.6 on right (sweet spot)

200% enlargement of original jpegs. f4.0 on left, f5.6 on right (sweet spot)


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