Focus issues photographing the moon

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sapstar

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Bharat
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I have shot moon photographs in the past and they come out pretty sharp. I was trying to shoot the moon last week and had a lot of problems. My setup is as follows.

Sony A7RIII set to APS-C mode, Sigma 100-400 used at 400mm. (600mm equivalent). Shot at f/8, ISO 100 and I tired a variety of shutter speeds between 1/100 and 1/400. Camera is mounted on a tripod.
Camera attains focus and I get the green dot confirming focus. But the photos are very blurry and out of focus. I even tried manual focus with focus peaking. Even these turn out blurry.

I used the same lens during the day last week shooting birds and those photos were sharp.

I am not sure what I am missing here. Does the weather, cloud cover etc effect photographing the moon or there is something wrong with my settings?
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Too slow.... Moon moves quite fast. 1/1000 is more like it
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Thanks very much for the quick response. I checked my previous moon shot earlier last year. That was shot at 1/400s, f/6.3 on a sony A7R II not the A7R III. It's not extremely sharp, but doesn't look blurry. I will try again with a higher shutter speed.
 
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1/250 is usually enough to get fairly sharp images so 1/400 should be fine. The moon moves fast, but not that fast.....I've taken shots at less than 1/125 that are not tack sharp, but they're not blurry.
Could it be vibration that's the issue?
Are you using the timer or remote shutter release?
Atmospheric conditions etc can affect the images.
The sharpest images that I see tend to be stacked....
 
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Thanks @Bobsyeruncle @Vintage Racer.
I had my steady shot off on my camera and used a sturdy tripod rated for 25kg payload. I was shooting from first floor with tripod on a hard wood floor. I was using 2s timer for shutter.

Weather wise that day was really cold, day was foggy for the most time with patches of sunshine.

I was reading online that how high the moon is in the sky will also impact the shutter speed decisions.

I will give it a try again when we get a clear sky. But this particular shoot has been a bit of mystery.

From the discussion here, I conclude its probably not the focus, but movement of moon or shake which was causing the blur.
 
the moon although easily seen is not that easy to photograph. Usually there is a haze around it or clouds covering it. I find winter time is best when it is cold outside. Even then the lens can mist up among all the other issues to deal with

Edited photo

moon.jpg
@400mm
 
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Stegosaurus said:
Did you actually confirm the focus in Live view?
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With manual focus in live view, I can see the focus peaking, but the image still looked kind of blurry.

With auto focus, I was getting focus confirmation.
 
Could be playing a part. But my last shot was from the same location and that was fine. I will resort when I get the shot again.
 
best using a remote shutter . At this distance the slightest movement of the camera is disaster.
 
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Probably not anything to do with it but could you have a bit of condensation on the lens? Not enough for it to not focus, but enough for it to ruin the images?

Being mirrorless I doubt it as it focusses on the sensor, but worth checking next time.

T
 
I don't think I've ever shot the moon from a tripod, the SS required usually negates the need. It wasn't a case of image stabilisation being on whilst on a tripod was it?
 
NickD said:
I don't think I've ever shot the moon from a tripod, the SS required usually negates the need. It wasn't a case of image stabilisation being on whilst on a tripod was it?
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No it wasn't. I made sure steadyshot on my sony camera is off.

I also tried shooting handheld with stabilisation on and got the same results on that day.
 
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Might be worth trying to shoot at 350mm rather than at full extension. Crop in a little harder to regain the apparent reach.
 
If it was foggy during the day the night sky would be very unlikely to be clear enough for a decent shot of the Moon.
You say you were shooting from the first floor. Presumably through an open window, not through glass?
If you were shooting from indoors in front of an open window with moisture in the outside air, that could well cause your lens to condense up.
I always find it best to autofocus, check it's solidly locked on then switch the lens to manual focus. It's possible the low contrast of the Moon's surface caused the focus to hunt.
 
sapstar said:
With manual focus in live view, I can see the focus peaking, but the image still looked kind of blurry.
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There's your answer, the camera failed to focus by the sounds of it. Your eyes appear to be more reliable than the tech. Try taking control rather than rely on the technology when it fails to give you the results.
 
sapstar said:
Thanks @Bobsyeruncle @Vintage Racer.
I had my steady shot off on my camera and used a sturdy tripod rated for 25kg payload. I was shooting from first floor with tripod on a hard wood floor. I was using 2s timer for shutter.

Weather wise that day was really cold, day was foggy for the most time with patches of sunshine.

I was reading online that how high the moon is in the sky will also impact the shutter speed decisions.

I will give it a try again when we get a clear sky. But this particular shoot has been a bit of mystery.

From the discussion here, I conclude its probably not the focus, but movement of moon or shake which was causing the blur.
Click to expand...


Movement of moon, will not be a problem!

If your tripod is standing on a 1st floor, hard wood floor, it is likely to be vibration transmitted from the floor through the tripod. - Any movement on that floor (even from another room) will show up in your shots!

The fact that your tripod will support 25kg, has no bearing, as it still depends on what material the tripod is made of and how quickly, it will dissipate any vibration. - Using a 2 sec delay, may not be long enough for your camera set up to 'settle down' after pressing the shutter release.......try using a longer delay.

I always shoot 'astro' from outside, on a stable base, such as concrete. Even then, I will ensure that I am far enough away from the tripod, for any of my own movement, not reach the tripod when I use my RF trigger to fire the shutter.
 
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Steady shot off, use manual focus and the peaking plus fullest focus zoom in to see it properly.
You can use the 5 second timer to avoid vibration but if it's windy when well zoomed in you will still get some shake.

The moon is reflecting sunlight and surprisingly bright to get good exposure and see good details on the surface, so keep a reasonably fast shutter speed as it (apparently) moves pretty fast too
 
I think the most likely cause here is what’s known as ‘seeing’ conditions which are movements in the atmosphere caused by heat mainly. Think of a similar effect to heat haze rising off tarmac on a hot day. To get a sharp shot of the moon with a single exposure on any given day is very lucky.

If you are using a DSLR then the vibration caused by the mirror can also cause issues. Although a less likely culprit in this case (along with many others mentioned) it might be worth trying mirror lock up if the camera is capable.

The best way to get high res shots of the moon is to use video / stacking techniques which you will be able to find plenty of info about online if it interests you.

Hope this helps.
 
I’m sorry. I have just realised the camera is mirrorless so ignore my DSLR comment in your case OP.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I will try the shoot again when the weather permits and will post my experience.
 
This is one I shot last year with sony a7rii at 1/400 f/6.3 and 400mm. This wasn't too sharp too... but not as bad as the current shoot.A7RII_1778_20200803%20(1).jpg
 
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Fast shutter speeds are not required for photographing the moon.
This was taken at an 1/80th of a second.

7CC_4449.JPG
 
The moon is about 13EV (exposure value). Which is bright it is about 1 stops below full sun outside on a grey card.

So the moon is easy to photographe. EV13 is F5.6 /250th sec/ 100ISO so it can be photographed with a telephoto lens hand held. I use a 300mm on crop sensor and can do it with VR switched on easy.

The best way to photograph the moon is to use a tripod and use the EV13 value of f8/125/ISO 100. use a stop or so either side, but keep at ISO 100 for detail on the surface.

Use live view to auto focus. Use the timer sit at 10 seconds so any wobble on the lens has stopped after pressing the shutter.

The moon is easy to photograph.

Now the International Space Station is another matter. F8/800th/800ISOISS_29MAR2020_IL_415.JPG
 
shapeshifter said:
The moon is about 13EV (exposure value). Which is bright it is about 1 stops below full sun outside on a grey card.

So the moon is easy to photographe. EV13 is F5.6 /250th sec/ 100ISO so it can be photographed with a telephoto lens hand held. I use a 300mm on crop sensor and can do it with VR switched on easy.

The best way to photograph the moon is to use a tripod and use the EV13 value of f8/125/ISO 100. use a stop or so either side, but keep at ISO 100 for detail on the surface.

Use live view to auto focus. Use the timer sit at 10 seconds so any wobble on the lens has stopped after pressing the shutter.

The moon is easy to photograph.

Now the International Space Station is another matter. F8/800th/800ISOView attachment 304644
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Cool.
What focal length did you use for this shot?
 
I had to google settings to get any good results in terms of clarity. It's very easy to over-expose and I can't remember now whether or not the one good shot I got on the night I tried was hand-held or on a tripod as I tried both.

I've tried several times since to no avail. While the moon might look clear to the naked eye, there's often something you can't see preventing the final shot from being clear.

The best result I ever got was with a 600D and a cheap-ish 70-300 lens. I've now got a full-frame camera and some L series glass and have not managed to produce anything better.

IMG_5828.crop by Kell Lunam-Cowan, on Flickr
 
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