moon photo tryout

realspeed

realspeed

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Bazza
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I decided to set myself a challange. I wanted to see how well I could capture a photo of the moon which was about 45% off vertical in the sky at about 10pm tonight. Previously I used a 2400mm lens

This time I tried with my Nikon D800 camera and an 80-400mm lens at the 400mm range only using a monopod
With a little editing this is what I got



Ok not the best ever but this from bedroom window
 
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I think your settings are all wrong mate.
f25, and 1/15 :eek:
try f5.6 and 1/500 (for example).

at 400mm it should be way sharper - the moon is travelling very fast, and is very bright.
 
Thank you Gavin . This was a complete tryout and didn't check camera in the dark. Have to say in my defence that didn't even know if I could get anything, trying to keep the camea still enough ( even with a monopod
) was hard with one hand virtually useless for this type of thing due to injured wrist. Niext time Iwill set the camera up on a tripod and give myself more time and use the settings you mentioned. thank you again for your advice
 
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abandonedbritain said:
Not bad but a tripod is a must!!
Click to expand...

No it ain't! I never bother with a tripod for moon shots, just rely on OIS, even at fairly extreme focal lengths. For example, the shot below was taken at 1/500th s, f/8 (actually f/5.6 but with a 1.4x teleconverter), ISO 200 using a Fuji X-Pro1 with the 100-400 at the long end on the 1.4x telecon, giving an effective focal length of 840mm (35mm equivalent). Minimal PP, just resizing and resharpenning after the resize for web use.

DSCF0491.jpg

A bit more tweaking brings it up better, although I'm not sure about the colouration...

DSCF0491HiCon.jpg
 
Better result than I had last night....

DSC_0576.jpg

.. taken at 200mm f/11 1/80sec on my D3300. I did use a tripod (no IS), but the AF is broken on this lens, the focus ring is really loose and I really should go to the opticians.
 
The moon is so far away you could shoot it at f1.2 at 2000mm and it wouldn't have a depth of field to make it out of focus
 
KernowChris said:
.. taken at 200mm f/11 1/80sec on my D3300. I did use a tripod (no IS), but the AF is broken on this lens, the focus ring is really loose and I really should go to the opticians.
Click to expand...
Too slow still, and aperture is too narrow too.
These 2 are the most recent examples I've got handy...

So this was taken 1/400, 5.6 @800mm on a tripod (cos its heavy)
Moon by Gavin Turner, on Flickr

This one is 1/500, 6.3 @ 400mm hand held
moon 400 by Gavin Turner, on Flickr
 
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Nod said:
No it ain't! I never bother with a tripod for moon shots, just rely on OIS, even at fairly extreme focal lengths.
Click to expand...

To be fair, realspeed did go on to mention that he has an injured wrist (I won't ask!) so I guess a long lens hand held with one hand is asking for problems regardless of shutter speed. Would agree though that normally shutter speeds are more than fast enough for hand holding. In fact, the moon move fast enough that you really need to keep the shutter speed pretty high anyway to avoid motion blur.

Some nice examples by the way.
 
gremlin16 said:
Looks a bit fuzzy to me when you zoom in. It could be the atmosphere as it was low in the horizon, I'm new too so I haven't quite sussed these finer points out yet
Click to expand...

Almost looks like motion blur but depends on your shutter speed.
 
gremlin16 said:
1/2500' f5.6 ISO 6400 I think.
Click to expand...

Maybe not then! But at that ISO noise reduction might be killing the detail. ISO 100/200 should be more than enough. It's basically bathed in direct sunlight
 
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abandonedbritain said:
Not bad but a tripod is a must!!
Click to expand...
As already said, a tripod isn't really needed - the moon reflects a huuuuge amount of light, the last time I was shooting the moon I was getting 1/250 at pretty low ISOs!
 
of course one could go silly with something like this



with a doubler on it to get up to 2600mm on a crop camera (Nikon D300 in this case ) as I did to get this close a shot of the moon




But one might as well go stand on the moon instead


Oh yes it was a very coldnight with a clear sky and had to get well infront of the moons orbit first and hope every camera manual setting were right
 
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It's a bit big for me. I've not really thrown my camera in the bin, it was a tip of the hat to your image :)

My biggest hindrance is the thick grey clouds above my hideously light polluted garden.
 
Where did you borrow that from ? The Hubble.......
 
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gremlin16 said:
On a serious note, has anyone got clear skies for this massive aurora tonight. It's clagged up here in Manchester.
Click to expand...

I hope so it's spiked
 
realspeed said:
of course one could go silly with something like this



with a doubler on it to get up to 2600mm on a crop camera (Nikon D300 in this case ) as I did to get this close a shot of the moon




But one might as well go stand on the moon instead


Oh yes it was a very coldnight with a clear sky and had to get well infront of the moons orbit first and hope every camera manual setting were right
Click to expand...

Crikey - that's slightly amazing! On a slight aside, how does that lens perform on non-moon subjects?
 
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You can watch someone undress in their bedroom half a mile away ;)
 
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Messing around last night, I was getting settings of 1/180th at f/5.6 (reported but was using a 2x converter so f/11) at ISO 400. Playing with auto bracketing and full stop brackets, even the 1/90th shot is sharp. Have to say that the camera's spot metering nailed the exposure and even the 1/90th one shows no blinkies.
I was also pretending to be Bazza and was using one hand (my right), resting the lens's tripod foot on my left forearm. Needed the 1/180th speed (correct exposure) to combat the slight extra shake the unorthodox posture introduced but could easily have increased the ISO to get even shorter exposures if necessary (and he could go at least as far as me with his D800!)
 
Nod how did it turn out? can you please post a photo of your effort.
 
No problem, just cropped and resized to 640 in camera (X-T1), otherwise SOOC. Will have a brief play in PSE on the 1/180th one as well - will post in a few minutes.

1/90ths, f/5.6, ISO 400
DSCF4069.JPG

1/180ths, f/5.6, ISO 400
DSCF4068.JPG


ETA the PSE edited one - just cropped and 100%, 1 pixel radius, 0 threshold sharpening applied.
DSCF4063PSE.jpg
 
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Nod nice effort , bit unfortunate the craters are not more defined.
maybe a little haze reduction would make it better like this and convert to a better black and white





I did do more work on it later on which I think defined it even more but that was my opinion not maybe others
Motion blur and camera shake reduction to name a couple


The problem i found and maybe same with others is a focus issue. The moon being at such a distance getting the middle and edge of the moon in focus is a struggle to say the least. With moon rim shots not such a problem and also crater depths can be shown better.

shapeshifter's photo is a good example.

I have to say that ihave found that using the Haze removal tool in Adobe Elements 14 has made , again what I think, clearer photographs and well worth trying out
 
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realspeed said:
Nod nice effort , bit unfortunate the craters are not more defined.
maybe a little haze reduction would make it better like this and convert to a better black and white


(Pic removed since there's little point in repeating it!)


I did do more work on it later on which I think defined it even more but that was my opinion not maybe others
Motion blur and camera shake reduction to name a couple


The problem i found and maybe same with others is a focus issue. The moon being at such a distance getting the middle and edge of the moon in focus is a struggle to say the least. With moon rim shots not such a problem and also crater depths can be shown better.

shapeshifter's photo is a good example.

I have to say that ihave found that using the Haze removal tool in Adobe Elements 14 has made , again what I think, clearer photographs and well worth trying out
Click to expand...


The crater definition does seem better in the 1/90th version for some reason, although the 1/180th one is better exposed.
I deliberately did the minimum to the shot, literally just a crop/resize (cropped to 1000x1000 pixels) and a sharpen using USM. I'm sure it could be improved if I spent more time on it!
Have to say that focus on the Moon isn't a problem for the X-T1, even with the 100-400 and a 2x telecon which makes it an f/11 rig. Possibly a little quicker for a rim shot but being a lazy bu99er, I just 1/2 press the shutter release to get focus and exposure and let the camera do its job.
Yesterday's Moon was fairly low in the sky when I shot it yesterday evening so more atmosphere to shoot through as well as it being over the light spill and potential heat haze coming off the city centre - much prefer the clean air in Crete for shooting through as well as the apparent higher position of the Moon in the sky. It was also a lot colder than I thought but I CBA to come in and put a fleece on so could have been shivering a little. (My excuse anyway!)
Have to say that I do rather enjoy shooting the Moon - it's a very regular visitor and ever changing, even if the changes are repeated every 29 or so days! Eventually, I expect I'll have a shot of it in every phase, although I'll probably make it a 6x5 shot panel for symmetry if I ever get around to it!
 
here i live nowi have 4 huge oak trees blocking the moon overhead so moon shots are virtually unable to get .
 
Amateur shot, such a stunning composite image from a kazillion images, I had to share it here. The photographer, a Mr G. Melis, explains how it was done:

"This is the result of the mosaic of many lunar images (232 shots) that were obtained during a whole year (2013-2014). Images was taken in different moon phases, then merged with Photoshop. Colors on the Moon are dominantly controlled by variations in iron (red) and titanium (blue) content. With multiple saturation boost operations we can see this colors. Colors that are imperceptible to the naked eye. To create the image I used three different digital SLRs, and a monochrome camera on a Newton 200mm aperture and 1000mm focal length, and a Maksutov Cassegrain 90mm aperture and 1250mm focal length."

Moon-Shot.jpg
 
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