moon photo

[willba]

Hi everybody
As I am a novice at this can anybody tell me the best settings to take a picture of the moon, I have a canon 400d plus canon 70-300is lens, sigma 170-500 lens, I would just like to get a descent picture if I can.
Hope somebody can help. Will,

[sassan]

Originally Posted by willba

Hi everybody
can anybody tell me the best settings to take a picture of the moon,

Will you know if there is one of you, there is a way... But you need to follow every thing as recipe goes or you may end up with fried something.

1- Steady tripod and tripod head (Wimberely tripod head are the best but not the mere necessity).

2- Attach your Sigma 170-500 securely (Balanced weight distribution{Kirk or wimberely or RRS 6 inch long plates}).

3- If you have a 1.6x or 2x tele-extender, won't heart to use it between the camera body and lens.

4- Do everything, up to here, on day time and be ready for the moon of day rather night of 7 to 11(Lunar cycle) if you have good open view on the west and want to picture early at night, or nights 17 through 22 if you are nocturnal and have a good view of East (The later you get up toward the mornings of end of month, the better). Avoid the full moon on first try as long shadows of craters and craterates adds a lot to your pictures. You can do this later on, or if your tripod is bad enough not allow you to point the equipment up into sky steady enough (On night 14 just after sunset, you have a full moon at horizon that is easiest to point to provided you have open east view but pictures may not look too good due to excess light. Go through my gallery and you should see all kinds of moon in my older and some of new images.

5- You either need a remote shutter release or you should set your camera to 10 seconds delay self timer (Reducing the cameras internal vibrations set up by moving parts including your index finger).

6- Via custom function of your 400D, chose Mirror lock up (I think option 8, but refer to your cameras manual if you don't know how). Make it enabled.

7- Chose L quality or RAW (If you know how to handle RAW lateron for the best result).

8- ISO 100 or 200

9- F stop 8 or 11 (You know by now that you are on M mode), Shutter at 125 or 250th of second. Rule of 11 applies here.

10- Focus to infinity on day time when lens is on Manual mode. Make sure you are not changing the focus after this or more importantly you are not zooming as if you loose your best infinity focus, you have trouble to get it back and then a lot of slightly unsharp image are too annoying at the end of tiring night.

11- This is not needed but I strongly suggest to keep your camera mode also on AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing) by one full stop (It is on second page of your menu, again if in doubt use your camera's manual and get familiar ahead of time). This way you have 3 images with every shutter press that assures you at least one best result.

12- Make a note of each image you take and keep on re adjusting you exposure to the best of 3 in AEB images. Live view of new cameras that give you zoom function even when focusing is quite useful. One bad option on 400D is the bright LCD that remains on after shooting and can cause good blinding effect on photographer. Tape a black adhesive over the sensor that is located to the top of your visor to get rid of this and still having the ability of removing it as needed to readjust your camera's setting as needed with trial and errors).

You are ready...
Don't forget to have extra battery, flash light and extra memory in case...


Last the extra personal secrets that you need to promises me to keep it strictly confidential; Post processing.

1- Right crop

2- Desaturate the image to get rid of extra color or saturation. You can do this partially that gives best result.

3- Use USM to add a tad of sharpness with out making it too obvious.

Next, well upload your image and let me see what you came with.
Best of luck.

[willba]

Thanks Sassan
I do have a 1.4 extender for the sigma, the weather is not so good here at the moment overcast and rain forcast so it may be a while before I can do this but I will try as soon as I can, I will let you know how I get on.
Will

[Don Hoey]

Good advice from Sassan.

Well worth going through the Photographing The Moon thread.
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...ead.php?t=1065

Perhaps you will post some pics in it when you give it a try.

Don

[willba]

The only problem I have unless I am being silly, on my camera canon 400d how do I get 125th or 250th of a sec as it dose,nt show that figure, and also what is rule of 11,
Will

[Don Hoey]

Will,
I cannot offer a step by step on how to adjust the camera controls in M - manual mode as I am not familiar with Canon cameras. If there is no response by tomorrow I will see if I can download a manual to give a step by step guide to getting there.

I trust Sassan the knowledgeable one will beat me to that though.

Don

[miketoll]

I think what he means is bracket the exposure either side of the 'correct' one using the manually set aperture and/or shutter speed i.e. f8 or f11 or shutter speed 125th or 250th. I do not know the 400D but expect it is the same as the 40D: set the mode dial to M, use the 'Quick Control' dial (the one on the back) to set the aperture and the 'Main' (by the shutter button) dial to set the shutter speed.

[willba]

many thanks all, I,ve got the bracketing and the shutter spead, Oh well if all fails I must read the manual more, I just nead to know what rule 11 is, then I will prey for some good weather and clear night.
Will

[sassan]

Will; I guess you have answer to your questions by now, but in case, here is more help if needed:

1- LINK to download manual for 400D
in case you have lost or misplaced yours.

2- For M mode (Manual exposure) turn to page 71.
In short you adjust Shutter speed by moving Dial on Right Top of your camera.
You adjust the F stop by holding down the Av+/- bottom and turning same dial as above. Av bottom is the top bottom on the right of preview LCD.

3- AEB is discussed in manual's page 76.
It is not a must. You can start with Rule of 11 and then adjust accordingly.

4- Rule of 11 is a deviation from "Rule of 16" know well by all old photographer who are familiar with cameras that used to lack exposure meter so had to make a guess and chose their own exposure. Rule of 16 states; If you are shooting under a normal sunny day, if you use F 16 (Thus rule of 16), and film with ISO 100, your right speed is one over ISO i.e. 1/100 or for those days camera, closest shutter to this, 1/125.
Now with over cast sky, you decrease one shutter stop, and one F stop or two of each. Then for shadows, indoor, you add two more and list goes on.
Here you use F stop 11, ISO 100 Speed 1/125 (Rule of 11)

5- Remember if you are lucky enough to spot the first night (Or last) moon (That dosn't last much and you need to look low near horizon on the west, one good example is/was tonight, Oct 1st), it has brightness intensity of %6 or full moon that roughly increases by 8 percent a night till night 14 when moon is at full brightness. This rule is for mid cycle so you may want to decrease of increase exposure equivalent (EV) as needed. It is a lot easier done than said. Just start with same ISO 100 F/11 shutter speed 1/125 (If your set up is not stable enough, decrese one from F and add to shutter or do it to multiply that is limited by your working max wide F stop, remembering that if you use 1.5x teleconverter, you have 1 full stop lower thatn shown on dial of lens), and check the exposure on LCD. If you are good with histograms (On X axis far Left is too dark, far right is too bright and in between is just the right exposure and tallness of Y axis is pixels harboring that brightness). But again reading histogram is not a must. Just look at the picture if it is too bright or just enough bright, you are over-exposing. Decrease your selections. If it is a littler darker than what you like to see, It is perfect. If too dark, then you know what it is. Alternatively, you can bring the memory card back to your PC and check the magnified images once downloaded to see critical focusing, in addition to right light and go back and continue as needed.

Except for cloud, let me know if you can make any other excuses!
As for cloud, well cross your fingers and ask the higher authorities One good advice here, You can get closer to higher authorities at higher altitudes, so if you have mountainous location near by, don't hesitate to drive there that not only you have a better atmosphere for picture taking (Lesser smog, pollution) but lesser chance of low clouds, fog etc. Being close to cost myself, I see a significant change when high in mountain. Fortunately for me, the web cam at place of my interest (The place you can see Milky way on my gallery) on the internet, can give me a live view of place that refereshes every 5 minutes so I can deside whether a trip is worthy or not, with a lot of certainity. You may want to check such things in your neighborhood.

[miketoll]

Originally Posted by sassan

4- Rule of 11 is a deviation from "Rule of 16" know well by all old photographer who are familiar with cameras that used to lack exposure meter so had to make a guess and chose their own exposure. Rule of 16 states; If you are shooting under a normal sunny day, if you use F 16 (Thus rule of 16), and film with ISO 100, your right speed is one over ISO i.e. 1/100 or for those days camera, closest shutter to this, 1/125.
Now with over cast sky, you decrease one shutter stop, and one F stop or two of each. Then for shadows, indoor, you add two more and list goes on.
Here you use F stop 11, ISO 100 Speed 1/125 (Rule of 11)

Gosh, I had forgotten all this although this is where I started and then TTL light meters came in. I still have a Leningrad 7 hand held light meter from those days which was fine in good light but not low light. I think we used something called B&W film too!