Problem with live view shooting the moon

adox66

Senior Member
I had my first attempt at shooting the moon this evening. Nice clear evening here with a bright moon, I had a rough idea of what was needed. Head out locally with my bag and tripod and set up with my longest lens(70-300) set to manual focus with vr off.

Switched to live view to zoom in and get a nice sharp focus but the image of the moon on the screen warlike a spotlight, too bright to try and focus on. Ive no idea why it was so bright on the live view and kinda ruined the shoot for me. I had to try and manual focus through the viewfinder at 300mm. Did my best but its still a small object to try and get sharp at that range.

Anyone any idea why the image in live view was so bright? I was even under exposing the shots slightly but when switched to live view it was just a bright light with no detail whatsoever.
 

adox66

Senior Member
Maybe the brightness was too high on the viewfinder?

Maybe. Never even thought to check to be honest. Had a look there now and its at the default setting of 0. I suppose I could try it again another night all the way down at -3 but I`m not sure how much of a difference that will make.


Edit: I`m talking about Live View, not the viewfinder.
 

co2jae

Senior Member
I think i was not clear....of course as my wife says.....The brightness like on your TV or PC monitor. Maybe its different on my 7000. I should have said in liveview, check the brightness settings.
 
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adox66

Senior Member
I think i was not clear....of course as my wife says.....The brightness like on your TV or PC monitor. Maybe its different on my 7000

Yeah the LCD display on the back of the camera. I will try and dim the brightness to its lowest setting but the moon looked that blown out on it at 0 I`m wondering will it help much.
I`d be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully shot this method with a D3200.

Thanks for the replies co2jae.:)
 

adox66

Senior Member

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Yes... It'll let you press the zoom button, and see the detail, rather than a harsh white spot... then you can focus manually... and get a tack sharp image... you would think that setting the lens to the infinity setting would produce sharp results... but that hasn't been my experience...
 

adox66

Senior Member
Yes... It'll let you press the zoom button, and see the detail, rather than a harsh white spot... then you can focus manually... and get a tack sharp image... you would think that setting the lens to the infinity setting would produce sharp results... but that hasn't been my experience...

Great thanks. Hopefully it sort it out for me. I was so disappointed when I switched to live view and couldn't focus. Didn't even think about the brightness setting itself. Oh well you live and learn.
Next time I`ll be ready and hopefully get a nice sharp image.

​Thanks for the tip about spot metering too.
 

Rexer John

Senior Member
Monitor brightness isn't the issue here in my opinion.

My camera is the D5100 so I cant say for sure that my fix will help you.
Use exposure compensation to get a live image that you can work with, try -5 and you should get a much better live image.
Use M mode to set for the actual exposure you need.
 

adox66

Senior Member
Ok just quickly tried live view outside my front door with the setting all the way down to -3 and while it helped a bit, when zoomed in the moon was still just a bright white ball with no detail.:confused:

I was just hand holding the camera, not looking to take any shots, but even at that it was still looking way too bright to use live view.
 

adox66

Senior Member
Monitor brightness isn't the issue here in my opinion.

My camera is the D5100 so I cant say for sure that my fix will help you.
Use exposure compensation to get a live image that you can work with, try -5 and you should get a much better live image.
Use M mode to set for the actual exposure you need.

That worked a treat, thanks so much. Luckily the moon is still out here, although way high in the sky at this stage but stepped outside the front door with the camera and tripod, stuck the exposure compensation all the way down and hey presto, detail on the surface when zoomed in on live view.

​Thanks again. Delighted.
 

Rexer John

Senior Member
Don't forget to change it back for 'normal' photos when you finish your shoot, otherwise you will be underexposing shots.

​Glad it worked on your camera.
 

adox66

Senior Member
Shoot it in manual mode, ISO 100,125 sec
And you should be good to go.


Sent from my iPhone 5s using Tapatalk

Thanks. It wasn't actually the shot settings that I was having an issue with, it was trying to focus when zoomed in on live view. It was just a big white ball for me with no detail making it impossible to focus with this method. Fortunately Rexar John solved it for me.
 
Yes... It'll let you press the zoom button, and see the detail, rather than a harsh white spot... then you can focus manually... and get a tack sharp image... you would think that setting the lens to the infinity setting would produce sharp results... but that hasn't been my experience...

The problem with AF lenses is that fully turned goes past infinity.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 

3rdGear

New member
If you grab this photo and have a look at the setting I used it might help you with your setup.
The Setting I used I got off youtube.

​Cheer :)
 

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Mark F

Senior Member
Just out of curiosity, latecomer in the thread... but are you using spot metering? Matrix will give you the white ball.
​I've used live view at the moon and zoomed in and never had that problem, but I was also using a d300s so it may be something with the lcd's of the d3xxx and/or d5xxx
 
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adox66

Senior Member
Just out of curiosity, latecomer in the thread... but are you using spot metering? Matrix will give you the white ball.
​I've used live view at the moon and zoomed in and never had that problem, but I was also using a d300s so it may be something with the lcd's of the d3xxx and/or d5xxx


Hiya. Thanks for that. I'm pretty sure I had it left on matrix metering so will change to spot the next time and see if that helps although I do think it could be an issue with the lcds on those lines.

If and when I get back out shooting the moon I'll use spot and report back.
 
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