Moon Photography Tutorial
A short guide to photographing the moon, concentrating on how I made the above image 'High Drama'
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Recommended equipment: DSLR or mirrorless equivalent camera, telephoto lens around 300mm, tripod.
Recommended skill set: Able to expose normal daytime photos correctly in manual mode and achieve sharp focus in daytime. Basic photo editing skills.
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How I took the photo: The photo was taken in the early evening. The moon was high in the sky so I was able to shoot from just outside my front door. I used a tripod as the shutter speed (1/25) was too slow for handheld. However, the shutter speed had to be reasonably fast to stop the fast moving clouds and the moon from motion blurring. I used my camera's base ISO of 64 for the best quality and my 300mm f4 lens was wide open. I focused on and exposed for the moon simply using the mirrorless camera's viewfinder. With a DSLR it may be best to spot metre the moon and check the exposure on the back LCD. I took lots of photos, around 200 in 7 minutes. I don't care how may aren't usable as I'm just looking for one or two good ones.
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Choosing the photo: I spent around 15 minutes going through the photos. Here is one of two raw files that stood out. I choose the photos that give my heart a little 'bump' when I look at them, plus are technically in sharp focus and well exposed. Both are equally important to me. Above is the unaltered raw file. It looks dull as it is exposed for the moon and the clouds are too dark.
Basic editing: Here is a one minute edit in Lightroom. I have made a slight crop, lifted the shadows and turned down the highlights. I always do this before I move on to the actual edit. It would be fine left there if I was less experienced at editing.
Advanced editing: I made two raw files treatments in DXO Photolab, one for the moon and one for the clouds. I blended the two in Photoshop then went back into Lightroom for finishing. The edit took about half an hour. Above is the finished image.
Problems to look out for: If the camera is in auto exposure mode it will normally expose for the surrounding sky and the moon will be a glowing white disc, as in the above example.
With the tripod there should be no blur from camera shake. However, if the shutter speed is too low there will be motion blur, like the above shot at 1.6 sec.
Here we see missed autofocus can also causing blur.
The moon can be a boring subject. However, you can practice plenty on dull evenings then when the sky is more exciting you can take full advantage. Please drop me a message me know if anything is unclear or you'd like to know anything else.