Moon Photography

At one point or another every photographer points their lens towards the heavens in hopes of capturing something great. Because of the way a camera works, it can be difficult to capture a nice photo of the heavens. If you’re interested in how to make a nice photo of the moon, keep reading…

First and foremost, get your camera out of the automatic modes and into manual. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a sweet harvest moon as your subject, there will most likely be more dark area filling your frame than bright moon. All that dark area is going to fool your cameras light meter in all but spot metering modes. The moon is actually extremely bright. You’ll notice that the above camera settings are not all that much different than those used in regular sunlight.

Tip number 1. Put your camera into spot metering mode. Meter off the moon. This will get you in the ball park for camera settings. Don’t be afraid to bracket your exposure by 1 or 2 stops to ensure you get a nicely exposed image. Use the preview features of your digital camera (image and histogram) to ensure you have a nicely exposed image.

The next thing to pay attention to is the size of the moon. The larger the moon appears, the easier it will be to photograph. If you notice the moon is a nice size, but it is not dark yet, don’t be afraid to get your camera out. For the reasons discussed in tip 1, it is perfectly fine to take your photos before it’s is fully dark. Unless very early evening, the moon will still appear to be surrounded by night sky.

Tip number 2. Photographing the moon can be done anytime it makes a good subject. Don’t be afraid to get your camera out if it’s still light out.

Also keep in mind the zoom lengths that are sometimes require to make photo of the moon. The above photo was taken at a 35mm equivalent of 896mm. That’s going to be pretty much impossible to hand hold at these shutter speeds, so get out your tripod and cable release (or use the timer function on your camera).

Tip number 3. A tripod is you friend when photographing the moon. If you don’t have a tripod, find a way to secure your camera so it is steady and free from any vibration that would cause your image to be out of focus. Use a cable release or your camera’s built in timer for releasing the shutter.

Don’t forget to consider the working aperture range of your camera. Pick an f/ stop value that is sharpest for your lens. Each lens has an optimal sharpness range. That sharpest aperture is not when the lens is wide open or completely closed down; it is somewhere in the middle. It is worth your time to find where that is for your lenses. A good place to start this search is ~2 stops above your widest aperture.

Tip number 4. Pick the aperture value that will result in the sharpest image. The moon is a long way away and the atmosphere has a tendency to cause some diffraction which can result in soft images. Starting out with the sharpest settings for your lens will help with this once you get your image back to your Mac/PC for post processing.

Finally, I find focus is always sharpest in this type of photo (looooong distances or macros) when I manually focus. This has been true no matter which of my camera bodies I’m using.

Tip number 5. Manually focus on the moon. Look for those fine details to appear through the view finder. If you can see them in the view finder, you’ll see them in your final image. As a related side, make sure to check the diopter adjustment on your viewfinder. If you need to have it set anywhere other than in the centered position, I’m going to assume that you already know how to adjust it based on any vision issues you might have.

These tip will certainly help you on your way to photographing the moon. Remember, there’s no “right” way other than the fun way, so have fun.