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01-01-2013, 05:19 AM   #16
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A bright, full moon is an EV (Exposure Value) of 14, 1 stop less than a bright Sunny Day aka the Sunny 16 Rule. So f11, 1/100 sec, ISO 100. Better yet, go to f8, likely the sharpest aperture of your lens and 1/200 & ISO 200 or 1/400 & ISO 400. Close is good enough.

01-03-2013, 01:09 AM   #17
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I must have read this somewhere because it stuck in my head, that anything slower than 1/25 of a second will give you a blurry moon. If you watch it through a telescope you can see how fast it's moving. So yes, 2 seconds is way too long.
Not sure if my exposures help, but whenever I do moonlight shots & put the moon in as a double exposure with a 200-300mm lens, on 200ISO film I always use 1/125 at f8 for a full moon. Open up 1 stop for a half moon, 2 stops for a quarter. If there's a little light in the sky yet, or some cloud lighting the sky, I'll go to 1/125 at f11. This has always worked really well for me.
This advice came from a little cardboard slide-rule thingie for different night exposures, that must be 60 years old, which I got from my parents.
01-03-2013, 01:27 AM   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by wildman Quote
Perhaps poor air between you and the subject?

Especially air turbulence. The air between the subject and the lens is as much a part of the optical system as the lens itself.
After all you live in one of the largest most congested industrialized areas in the world.

The best you can do about it is shoot when the moon is at it's zenith.

Taken through good air...
Ummm, "WOW!", are my only words for that moon shot
01-03-2013, 08:09 AM   #19
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Along with the many excellent points made so far, the moon phase is also important. It's natural to see a full moon and say, I want to shoot that, but actually this is the least interesting phase for photographs. It is like shooting a portrait with strong on-axis flash -- no shadows, looks flat. One of the things that makes wildman's photo so good is the extra contrast and detail that comes from having shadows.

Worth experimenting with f/5.6 to see if that gives better results than f/8. DOF is not a concern here! Focus bracketing also a good idea, if you don't have live view.

01-11-2013, 11:40 PM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by johnyates Quote
Why close your aperture so much? Anywhere past f11 or so you start running into diffraction which impedes sharpness. And, with that small aperture, your exposure is longer which makes you vulnerable to subject motion.

The moon is far enough away that depth of field is not something you need to stop down for. One or two clicks down from wide open will give you excellent sharpness on most lenses, while reducing exposure time.
Thanks to everyone here. What great advice. I'm still such a novice with SLR photography. I always thought a smaller aperture would sharpen details. To be honest I don't actually know what "diffraction" is, but thanks for pointing that out to me, and I'll definitely try some of the suggestions. I did try a wider open aperture when I was experimenting, but in all of those photos the moon looked like a bright white ball, with absolutely no details of the surface.

Thanks again for the great advice!
01-12-2013, 12:34 AM   #21
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Wow! That pic by wildman makes me want to give up. I doubt I'd ever get anything even approaching that. All my attempts have been abysmal.
01-12-2013, 12:37 AM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by p38arover Quote
Wow! That pic by wildman makes me want to give up. I doubt I'd ever get anything even approaching that. All my attempts have been abysmal.
Well, not all of us have that kind of focal length (1000mm) at our disposal to play with either. But, I agree - that's an amazing photograph. The detail is awesome!

01-12-2013, 12:39 AM   #23
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QuoteOriginally posted by slr_neophyte Quote
Thanks to everyone here. What great advice. I'm still such a novice with SLR photography. I always thought a smaller aperture would sharpen details. To be honest I don't actually know what "diffraction" is, but thanks for pointing that out to me, and I'll definitely try some of the suggestions. I did try a wider open aperture when I was experimenting, but in all of those photos the moon looked like a bright white ball, with absolutely no details of the surface.

Thanks again for the great advice!
Good Evening - I think your main problem is metering (light metering). The camera has several mode - about 3 of them. Two of the three, average the light that the camera sees over the entire frame. So with the Moon being just a bright white ball, it is essentially over exposing the shot, so that the bright light is just overwhelming the details of the Moon. The solution is to go into spot mode, with the center point. This way the center point will meter on just the light from the Moon and set the correct exposure for the aperture and ISO that is set. The other thing to get things as sharp as possible, is to use f8 for an aperture. That should be a good estimate for the sweet spot for the lens. With that, you should start to see some improvement.

01-12-2013, 04:53 PM   #24
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We got our father the 55-300mm for Christmas. I took this shot of the moon on Christmas day with the lens attached to his K200D on a tripod and I spot metered on the moon. I only cropped it and added a bit of sharpening and clarity in Lightroom. I'm pretty impressed with the result.

ISO 100, f11, 1/30 sec.
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01-12-2013, 05:42 PM   #25
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QuoteOriginally posted by bricha Quote
We got our father the 55-300mm for Christmas. I took this shot of the moon on Christmas day with the lens attached to his K200D on a tripod and I spot metered on the moon. I only cropped it and added a bit of sharpening and clarity in Lightroom. I'm pretty impressed with the result.
Your moon has a moon!

But nice shot
01-13-2013, 12:08 PM   #26
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QuoteOriginally posted by Na Horuk Quote
Your moon has a moon!
It's Jupiter.
That's the shot I wanted to take with my telescope, if it hadn't been so darn cold out & me being lazy & wanting to stay warm.
01-15-2013, 08:40 AM   #27
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The moon and Jupiter get close again on January 21. They'll be a bit closer than on christmas day. I think parts of South America might be able to see an occultation (the moon will move in front of Jupiter).
01-17-2013, 10:07 AM   #28
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Looking at the OP, I'm guessing that aperture was probably your biggest problem. f27 is just too much for that lens and camera to handle. Going to f8 would also allow you to shorten the exposure speed. A bright moon, will usually allow you to get away with the sunny 16 rule (or at least within a stop).

The only other thing I'd state is that some tripods just don't work that well. I only say this because my previous tripod was a cheap one. It was mostly ok for what I was using it for, but then I started testing it out to longer exposures and I found that the legs vibrated enough to ruin shots over 2-sec. It was bad enough that shake reduction on the tripod was working better than without. I thought it was the head, but I found that I could weight it down and it worked.

I ultimately bought a much more expensive set of legs, and now I can shoot out to minutes without issues. Don't overlook that possibility unless you know you have a good quality tripod.
01-23-2013, 03:10 AM   #29
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I've taken the advice given here, and since the moon was out again this evening, decided to give it a try. While I am happier with the results this time, I still can't zoom and crop any without the image blurring - it still is not as sharp as I'd like. Is this still due to the rotation of the earth? My shutter speed was much higher, so I'm not sure this is the problem this time. I've attached a few of the shots taken this evening. I switched my camera from multi-segmented to spot metering. My camera was firmly mounted on a tripod - which was then set up on my apartment balcony. I believe most or all the shots were shot at F8.0, with my shutter speed greater than 1/200. I used a remote control for shutter release. SR was off.

Cheers

Last edited by slr_neophyte; 07-21-2013 at 12:12 PM.
01-23-2013, 03:17 AM   #30
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Ah ha!!! My bad! I think I realized the problem. My autofocus point, and the side that I had the moon on in the frame were not in sync. I just went out and tried a couple now, hand held without the tripod and they're much sharper.

Cheers!
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