Even though shots of the full moon are nice, I have found that lunar images are more impressive when taken at first or last quarter (when half the moon is illuminated). The reason for this is that in those phases there are shadows that provide contrast revealing details like craters, mountain ranges, and plains. Those details are largely hidden when the moon is full.
Even a little bit of shadow can provide this contrast. It really does bring out the details on the surface if you want a good view of the craters and peaks.
I Like to do moon photo 2 days before or after full moon. At this moment one side edge is slightly darker. What I like to do then it "cheating" and use a shadow-deepening gradient on the darker side and a highlight intensifyinig one on the other at editing time. It’s very effective to add depth and when you do it properly it looks pretty natural.
Good tips. Shooting on a clear, cold night with no wind will give you the best opportunity for a sharp image. When the moon is near its zenith (highest point in the sky), it will be its brightest and you will be shooting through minimum atmosphere. I've experimented with my equipment (EOS R, EF 500 mm f/4 lens + 1.4 teleconverter) and have gotten my clearest images at 1/1250 sec, f/5.6 and ISO 800. For me, manual focus is critical and I use 10X magnification to get the best view of details. I take a number of shots, adjusting focus each time. In LR, I compare and pick the best image based on the resolution of the finest detail. Photographing the moon is fun. My first "moon shots" were taken in 1965 with a 300 mm lens on a Pentax. I calculated exposure with a Lunasix light meter. No auto features back then. The moon was very small but I got good detail on Ektachrome slide film but nothing like you can get now with modern cameras and lenses.
@@Majom240 because stabilization is meant to compensate micro movements, and if there is no actual movement, it may still try to compensate and therefore do the opposite of what it’s supposed to, i.e. create undesirable micro-movements
New to photography and new Subber 06-23-2024. I will try these settings the next time there is a full moon. I live in the mountains now in rural California, USA. I have always admired people who were passionate about photography. I want to learn the art of photography, so I can share photos with family, friends, and the world. I bought a Canon EOS 6 Mark II and I am having fun learning how to use it. I am very fond of photos of the moon with mountains or trees with it. I live in the mountains in an unincorporated area (new property) and would love to learn the proper Settings for everything living here both creatures big and small and landscape to take beautiful photos. I have much to explore now that we're out of the Silicon Valley, CA life is good. Thank you for making this video and sharing it with us. I appreciate you. You are a good instructor and easy to follow along. MountainAngel somewhere in the Sierra CA. USA foothills
Mark, Have viewed this numerous times and shot on Nikon d500 with 300mm in DX mode allow quite good I took your advice and bought Nikon 200-500 my Jan 23 shots at 500 where nearly as good as yours but will try In DX giving me 750 in Feb 2023 full moon. Thanks for all your video got me through a lot of operations so just starting at 83!!
Important thing for y’all, most lenses work on this if you have digital zoom. My SONY NEX C3 with a 18-55 mm lens took a clear photo of the moon with digital zoom
Nice one Marc. Any chance of a video on what to look for in a tripod? I bought a cheap Manfrotto some time ago for my wife's YT adventure and since it has this ball head and just a single handle I sometimes struggle to get the camera nicely horizontal so I imagine there will be other systems out there. Obviously on a budget too. #hardTimes
I like shooting the moon in the winter. Summertime their is moisture moving in the air making it almost impossible to focus. Winter is dry. I always manual focus.
These are ONLY guidelines , and are not inflexible - I use a full frame 70-200 f 2.8 lens on my APS-C camera , which works out at around 100-300 on my Nikon D 7200 , and have no problem ,( but these pictures don't find their way onto the lounge wall )
So I am using a 1" sensor which is much smaller than the Crop Sensor but still curious about the settings and it is a LUMIX FZ1000ii with a 400mm reach.
Thanks a lot for sharing knowledge. If you don’t mind I have a question to ask. May be sounds silly but I really need to know. I’m using Nikon D500 with 200-500mm Lens. I’ve learn it’s not good idea to point directly to the Sun and the sensor will burn. What about moon? If I take a photo of moon, I hope there won’t be any harm for camera sensor, right?
In my experience, when I'm zoomed in at 600mm on a 1.6 crop sensor, even the slightest touch causes the 10x image on the back of the camera bounces all over. It's extremely difficult to get tack sharp images.
Marc, I'm wondering why f11 on moon shots. Since where shooting out to infinity and at night why not go with as open an aperture as you can do? Thanks- -Mat
I do a lot of astrophotography of mainly lunar and solar, and on lenses such as my Canon 400mm f/5.6 L USM I will shoot at f/5.6 all of the time. But that is because this lens has very good quality at all aperture settings. Many other lenses DO have better quality images typically at f/8 to f/11. It is a good idea to check the sharpness and chromatic aberration for your specific lens on a site such as The Digital Picture. In this video he is also using an f/5.6 lens with a 2X extender or teleconverter which has 2 stops of light loss, putting his largest aperture at f/5.6 + 2stops = f/11.
Great tutorial. However what about the WB? Sunny i suppose because the moon is iluminated by the sun. All the rest i will be trying tonight. Aperture priority and manual with the settings you mentioned. Thanks for the great tutorial.
I also disagree with this. The emphasis on the kit you MUST have is wrong. I have many excellent moon shots using a 10 megapixel APS-C body and a 70-300mm kit zoom. A decent tripod is needed however if you want sharp pictures.
don't you loose F stops equivalent to the strength of the tele-converter ( 2 stops for a 2X converter ) ? .( I suppose if you are shooting at F 11 having your fastest F stop reduced to F 8 is no big deal then )
I noticed that when I had my 200-500 Nikon Lens on my old D3200, I was getting much better photos than it being mounted on my D850. Is this because my D3200 was a crop sensor and the D850 a full frame? I've tried adjusting the focus on the D850 to adapt to this lens, but it still has better results with the D3200. Should I just switch my D850 to the crop sensor mode when using this lens? Would very much appreciate any suggestions.
Hi, I know this is quite a long time ago now so you might not pick my comment up. I am getting back in to photography in my late 60's 🙂Currently have a Canon EOS 2000d and a Panasonic FZ 300, my question is, did you edit the pictures you showed after you had taken them or were they pretty much straight out of the camera? I understand the restrictions of the FZ330 as it will only go to F8 it seems, also at the moment my longest lens for the Canon is a Tamron 18 to 270, I do have a 2x teleconverter but loose the auto function. Wondering if I should go for a better body first, thinking about EOS 90d or better lens, maybe Sigma 150 to 600. Sorry about all the questions.
@@theschoolofphotography Thanks very much for the reply, I will have a look at the courses. Main question however if you don't mind answering, were the pictures you showed straight out of the Camera or were they edited?
@@chrisbartlett6022 appreciate this is an old post but if you are in the market for a Canon camera body at about £1,000 (which is what the 90D retails for), then I would consider the Canon R10 mirror less and buy an R to EF adapter. Much better focusing system.
Hello Marc, You stressed that you need a minimum 400mm lens when using a crop-sensor camera. I have a Canon 80D and my tele lens is the Canon 70-300. Now, is it correct to say that since the Canon crop-factor is 1.6 then my maximum is actually 480mm, meaning I have better than your 400mm minimum recommendation? Or is my logic way off the mark!! If I need to, then I will get a teleconverter, but from what I've read so far, there are trade-offs and maybe the potential to have less sharp pictures?
Hi David, your lens will be fine. The video gives an ideal scenario. On a crop sensor camera I would recommend 400mm or more, but again, your lens will still do the job 👍
I have a Fujifilm X-E3 with a 1.5 crop factor and recently bought a 70-300mm lens for it. For solar eclipse photography, I have used a 25-600mm bridge camera and the photographs have a nice size but you cannot zoom in too far because of the corona. The 1.4X teleconverter has been ordered for the 70-300mm that will give a 630mm full frame equivalent focal length that is slightly more than the bridge camera. The 1.4X teleconverter was chosen instead of the 2X because of image quality and the increase in f-number considerations. I would also recommend using and electronic shutter to reduce vibration. It might be worthwhile auto bracketing the exposures and select the best one. You will probably find that the image on the Moon can look a bit flat and of low contrast, particularly at a Full Moon. Photographing the Moon where part of it is in shadow can give a lot of detail on the terminator. The image quality can be improved by taking a large number of images and stacking them. Free software like Autostakkert can be good for doing this. Lunar images can be further processed by sharpening and stretching the intensity to increase the sharpness. The colour saturation can be increased to bring out the colours.
Sensor resolution matters too! If you have a 6K sensor, you can afford to crop in 1.5x and still have a crisp photo (which viewed on a 4K screen or printed at a smaller size). Big prints or larger 6/8K screens will require a full 6/8K sensor with no cropping, in which case you'll need the lens to do all the zoom work for you.
Guys I did a pretty good picture of the moon with a kit lens 18mm-135mm. You don’t need to spend money to do good pictures. You need to work with what you have. Why photographers try to sell you always something, new Lena new light new tripod etc and spend more money in your equipment and I did a decent photo with my kit lens. Why you don’t teach without pro equipment?
if you can get your hands on a long(ish) full frame lens , even a friends 70-200 f 2.8 , because of the crop factor , you'll end up with a reasonable 100-300 f 3.5 ( or is it f 4.5 ? ) lens , which still doubles your shooting range - but don't forget ,that to shoot moon pics , you should set the lens aperture to f 11 anyway
David Green thanks but I already take a picture with my kit lens and it was pretty good. My comment was to point out that you don’t need a pro lens to take a moon’s picture
The problem with using an 18-135 kit lens , is that the image of the moon won't be very large in the viewfinder , or even on the viewing screen of your computer , and as you crop and sharpen the image using software , you'll inevitably loose image quality ( and YES I DO own a kit lens ( 18-140 ) , and YES IT IS a versatile piece of kit , but IMHO , it does have its limitations
David Green for a RU-vid Chanel that “teaches” and it’s target for new photographers I find that teaching them with a kit lens and moving things up to a pro would be more appropriate. This video is clearly a selling product video an misleads new photographers to buy things that they don’t need.
Hi, yes that would work as well but it could be a bit bright. At that distance there will be no difference in DOF between the two apertures. To learn more about apertures and depth of field check out our courses here www.theschoolofphotography.com/online-photography-courses
@@theschoolofphotography it would allow me to take a shorter shutter speed. You propose f11 and 1/125th. I could try/ use f 5.6 and 1/500th. Will have to test this 🙂
@@achimrecktenwald9671 I don't recommend shooting the moon at f/5.6 for 2 main reasons. First is sharpness, which is is often going to be best in the f/8 to f/11 range for most lenses. The second is chromatic aberration, which can be removed in post-processing but is generally ideal to reduce it in the image straight out of camera, and it will be worst at the lens's fastest aperture. I doubt that you will need a 1/500mm shutter speed in most moon photo cases, so the extra light that f/5.6 allows is not much of a benefit. My personal moon shotting settings on my APS-C camera are f/11, ISO 125 for 1/125s. I'm using a Sony ZV-E10 (Sony's cheapest current APS-C camera) with their 70-350mm APS-C lens. A benefit of the lens is that it has stabilisation built in, so I can actually shoot sharp moon images at 350mm (525 FF equiv.) hand-held - even with shutter speed set to 1/125s.
Hi, daylight or AWB will be fine. For the supermoon shot I used daylight to get the orange of the moon as realistic as possible. To learn more about light and white balance in photography click here www.theschoolofphotography.com/online-photography-courses
