If you have a DSLR camera or a perfect place to shoot with an optical zoom, I am sure that every now and then you see a beautiful moon and you think about taking a picture of it, especially when the moon is full and beautiful.
However, capturing the moon is not as easy as it seems. Sometimes you see an ad about a lunar eclipse and you really want to photograph the moment, but most of the time you don’t know how to do it properly.
- Other times.
- You want to capture the moon with a foreground object.
- Such as a house or tree.
- But the image doesn’t work well on the camera’s LCD screen because the moon looks much smaller and looks like a white spot on your photos.
- Of the moon.
If you’re in one of these situations or just want to know how to take pictures of the moon with a digital camera, this guide is for you. We’ve gathered some tips so you can get fantastic pictures of the moon, look!
Before we start talking about taking a photo of the fascinating moon, let’s first answer some basic questions. I’m sure if you’ve ever tried to take a picture of the moon, you’ve probably faced a problem where the moon looks small compared to what it saw when taking the photo.
So the most common question in such photographs is, without a doubt, why does the moon look much smaller when photographed?
The answer is simple, you probably capture a photo of the moon with a wide-angle lens, keep in mind that your eyes are like a 50mm fixed lens, this means that when capturing a photo of the moon with a wide-angle lens, less than 50mm, so the moon will be captured in a smaller size.
Then, to capture a large tree, for example, or a house with the moon at the bottom of the image, you must zoom out and photograph the scene to try to match the actual image perceived by your eyes.
However, even taking pictures of the moon with a 50mm lens can make it look smaller in the image, especially when the moon is near the horizon. It’s also due to a phenomenon called optical illusion, where the moon seems bigger for your eyes. , when it really isn’t.
In general, after capturing photos of the moon, it can appear in the image as a white circular object instead of the moon being actually visible, that’s because your photos of the moon were overexposed at the time.
When you take a photo of the moon with other objects around it, your camera will measure or calculate the exposure by default based on the entire scene, but leave the moon aside during this exposure measurement. In fact, the moon is very small compared to the objects around it and a single point of light should not affect the overall exposure of the image perceived by your DSLR camera.
Think of it as a lamp when you take a picture of a low-light room. With a visible light bulb, the room will be exposed normally, while the lamp will be overexposed. Now, if we reverse the situation and the camera measures the exposure taking into account the brightness of the lamp, the room would appear completely dark, while the lamp would be the only visible thing in the scene.
The same goes for the moon, it works like the room lamp, according to the example mentioned above, the moon looks like a giant night lamp and will always be overexposed in your photos of the moon.
During the day, however, this is not a problem, because the amount of moonlight is not very different from the objects around it, including the sky.
But why do our eyes see everything normally, when a digital camera doesn’t?This is because our eyes and brain can see a much wider range of light, what we call dynamic range photography.
Obviously, you have to capture images of the moon on a clear night without clouds in the sky, even a thin layer of clouds will make it impossible to lighten an image of the moon.
Pollution in major cities, especially on hot summer days, will also play an important role in taking your fantastic photographs of the moon, so I recommend you leave town and head to a remote location, without light or pollution, preferably in a higher place. Altitude.
Also, the smaller the distance between you and the moon, the better your photos of the moon. When it comes to taking photos, take a look at the calendars of the lunar phases, there are even mobile applications for this purpose. , you will be able to know what phase of the moon you are currently in and calculate the best date to work on your impressive lunar photographic project.
As for the best time of day, well, any time works well to capture images of the moon. As long as the moon is visible to be captured by your camera, you’ll have no trouble getting the perfect photo of the moon.
A DSLR camera with a 200 mm telephoto lens or a compact camera with optical zoom capability is fully capable of playing very good photographs of the moon. However, the more features your camera and lens can offer, the better the results of your moon photos. .
A tripod can also be very useful to keep your photos of the moon stable at all times. A remote shutter can be attached to the camera if you’re really concerned about stabilization, but in the absence of one, your camera’s self-timer can. The same job.
An interesting trick is to enlarge the moon and show the details of its surface, in this case a good telephoto lens of more than 200 mm is essential to produce this effect.
The best scenario for photographing the moon is a stellar telescope with mounting camera. Basically, a digital camera is mounted on a telescope, which functions as a long telephoto lens, but these settings can be very expensive and are only suitable for specialized photographers. in asphotography.
To photograph the moon alone, without any objects in the foreground, you will need a long telephoto lens, as explained above, to enlarge the moon and try to fill as much structure as possible.
Even with a good telephoto lens, you’ll probably have to crop the final image, simply because only one telescope could provide enough magnification to fill the entire frame.
With your telephoto lens mounted on your camera, connect it to a tripod and aim for the moon. Make sure the tripod is good and stable enough to accommodate and keep your lens and camera perfectly stable.
In terms of shutter speed, aperture and ISO, these are the elements to consider:
Camera mode: Set the camera mode to Manual
ISO: Set your camera’s ISO settings to 100 if you have a Canon and 200 for a Nikon DSLR. For most other brands, the basic ISO is also 100, just make sure the option?Auto ISO? It’s disabled.
Opening: opening af / 11.
Shutter speed: 1/125 shutter speed in cameras with an ISO 100 and 1/250 base on Nikon DSLR cameras with an ISO 200 base.
Lens Focus: Start by manually focusing the lens, which can be activated by a switch on the lens or camera, and then adjust the focus to infinity. Be careful when adjusting the focus to infinity, use the live view of the camera to verify the result after capture with infinite focus, because on some lenses this can be frustrating.
The above aperture and shutter speeds are derived from an f/11 ruler, which is not necessarily very accurate for photos of the moon. I recommend starting with the above settings and adjusting the shutter speed to suit the moon’s brightness.
Another important thing is the post-processing of your photos of the moon. Sometimes it can be difficult to properly expose all areas of the moon, so you can take multiple photos and then merge them into HDR in Photoshop. The result may be better than expected!
Finally, for those with long telephoto rather than 400 mm, you may be able to use the aperture priority mode instead of manual mode, as long as you set your measurement to the point.
Let’s move on to how you can take a picture of the moon, with an object in the foreground, such as a tree, a house or a big rock.
As explained here, the moon will always be overexposed compared to everything else. The only way to capture the scene with proper exposure is to take two separate photos of the scene: one with the foreground correctly exposed and the moon overexposed. and another with the moon with adequate exposure and very underexposed objects in the foreground.
Then you just need to combine the two photos of the moon to generate a much more attractive and balanced final image.
So why would anyone want to photograph the moon? Certainly, photographers who usually take these types of images, receive this question several times during their work.
The answer to this question is simple (or not)! The moon is beautiful and imposing, one of the best shows that nature has to offer us all. Photography, on the other hand, is responsible for representing unforgettable moments in the image, so why not combine these two arts?
On the other hand, the moon also makes the night sky more interesting and can add a sense of enigma to an image. While photographing the moon, in itself, can be a bit annoying, including the moon as a composive element can produce excellent results. .
In addition, there are the lunar phases (growing and full, for example) that give even more possibilities for various compositions and, finally, why not try something new and learn to photograph bright objects at night?
We all tend to learn that photography says a lot about step and learning, moon photos are a great opportunity for those who want to learn new things and really know all the features of their team.
Searching for your photos of the moon is also a lot of fun, so go out and capture some photos of the moon!Take the opportunity to leave your comment below about this article, or who knows, list your own tips for taking fantastic photographs of the moon.