shutter speed

there's been a clear moon tonight so I've been playing with the camera through the window, is there a way to trick the camera to doing longer than a 30 second shutter?, the next option is timer but I've no idea what that is it just gave me a quick noisy shot?

What camera?

I'm guessing it is the D3200 my friend, since that is the subforum this is posted in.

480sparky said:

What camera?

Click to expand...

If so, then I'd suggest B for Bulb......... page 40 of the manual.

If you adjust the shutter speed to 30 seconds +,

You will will also have to adjust the aperture as more light is entering the camera.

I remember the 1st time I did it, ended up with a white picture, took me a while and a few questions on here to work it out.

Right, longer would be Bulb shutter setting (is as long as you hold it), but you would not need that for the moon.

Two reasons... the earth will rotate enough in 30 seconds to blur the image (unless you have a tracking mount).

But mostly because the moon is illuminated by direct sunlight, and exposures closer to normal daylight would be expected.

And three, automation makes it be very difficult. Manual exposure and manual focus is much easier on the moon.

Focus will be difficult, but much easier in Live View, AFTER you zoom the viewfinder in far to see it very large (so you can manual focus).

For a full moon, maybe start in ballpark around f/8 1/100 second, ISO 100 (manual mode), and experiment, but don't overexpose it.

See photographing the moon - Google Search

I gotta ask, though...... why do you need more than 30 seconds to image the moon? You can use the Sunny 16 rule.



After all it is sunlit, isn't it?

I get great results shooting the moon in program mode. Spot focus, spot metering I use my 60-300 zoom with the shutter speed at 1/300 to 1/500 sec with ISO NO MORE than 400. Using this I take 1 shot and get it every time. 30 seconds you are just going to get an overexposed white blob


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Like others said, the moon is very bright and should be exposed as such, relatively quick. Perhaps you were looking to take a neighborhood scene illuminated by the moon? If that is the case (or really for any very long exposure), cover your viewfinder since your head won't be at the camera to shield stray light. Light behind the camera can get in and ruin your picture over a longer exposure. Your camera should have come with a little plastic cap (dk-5) for this purpose or you can lean a hat or something to block the viewfinder.
The timer you mention is the self timer. This adds a countdown from when you press the shutter to when it actually fires. This gives you time to hop into the scene OR it could be used to prevent shaking the camera on a tripod. If you are taking a shot of the moon, you might want to use the timer so your hand is not touching the camera as it fires, hopefully giving you a sharper image. Alternatively, some use a remote, but the self timer works well if you don't have a remote.

all good answers thanks, I'm not after the longer shutter for the moon in particular but just wondered how to make it longer for things like traffic long exposure shots light trails at night.