Quote:
Originally Posted by willba
Hi everybody
can anybody tell me the best settings to take a picture of the moon,
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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.