Moon Shots

goz63

Senior Member
I have recently become interested in doing some moon photography, not going there but shooting it from here:p. I recently read about the "sunny day" rule of shooting at f16 with a shutter speed of 1/ISO ( if ISO is 200 then 1/200 ). In the past when I take a picture of the moon it seems to be washed out. I am going to use my 55-300 VRII. What suggestions do you all have for this and what experiences have you had.
Thanks in advance...
 

Mike150

Senior Member
I had good luck last month using F5.6, ISO 200 and 1/500. I experimented in Manual mode by systematically changing the F stop first, and going through various shutter speeds. Then a different F stop and more shutter speeds. Then I picked the best of the pictures. I was using the 55-200 Kit lens. Once you get a feel for what is close, you can tweek the settings for next month.

I really want to get that 55-300 like you have, but unfortunately, the Tax man wants even more of my money. My tax form had two lines this year.
1. How much did you make in 2010.
2. Send it in.
 

AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
Mark, while you were gone there has been a couple of moon thread (seems like there is one every month) check these out, examples & EXIF data included in some. It's going to give you a good starting point and you can tweak from there.

One thing I would recommend is to shoot in RAW (that's NEF not "in the raw" lol) makes post processing a lot easier.

Super Moon - http://nikonites.com/general-photography-forum/2361-moon-shots.html

Jan Moon thread - http://nikonites.com/photo-critique/1966-full-moon.html

Rick
 
Last edited by a moderator:

goz63

Senior Member
Thanks...So Axeman, I can't shoot in the raw, but should shoot in RAW, I think I get it but I will let you know LOL. I will look up those links as well.
Thanks also MIke for the post. I understand about the taxman as well. Hope we don't see a drastic change for the negative in that. Sounds like they are considering removing the tax deduction for home owners insurance, taxes and interest. Lets all finally kill and bury the housing market OK?
 

jcottone45

Senior Member
And here I am looking for "Moon Shots". And then I realized you're talking about that rock 340,000 miles in the sky!!!.
The last time I tried taking pictures of the moon & stars turned into a dressing down from my wife who accused me of wasting money & film. A while back I saw some ones gallery posted on the Nikon site, I believe, & what do you know, there were beautiful shots of the moon & stars with the camera mounted on a tripod & showing their movement. When I showed them to my wife she loved them.
I was afraid to ask her why my shots taken in 1982 were a waste of time & money & these shots were great, but she was standing too close to my baseball bat at the time, so I let it go.
I don't remember the name of the gallery but if anyone goes on the nikonusa site & asks I am sure they'll guide you there. It was well worth viewing and I absolutely loved them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Joseph Bautsch

New member
Moon shots tend to have a lot of blue color in them. If you want to add some warmth, oranges and reds, to your moon shots then set the white balance on cloudy.
 

goz63

Senior Member
I don't worry about the white balance so much because I shoot in RAW and you can adjust the color, white balance etc. in post production. Lets you get a look at several different options.
I read that Brian Peterson always shoots in "cloudy" for the very reason you mention, it warms the picture. Sometimes I like that but other times I don't. NEF allows you to change your mind.
 

Joseph Bautsch

New member
What white balance to use? There is no right or wrong just your style of shooting. Brian Perterson shoots mostly with Cloudy, because he likes the warm colors. I like to try and get the WB I want in the camera when I take the shot. Then I can tweak it in post processing if I need to. I have found that the more post processing you have to do to get it right the more the photo quality drops off. So I try to do as little post processing as I can. So my motto is as Jonathan Swift says: "You can't make a Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear." (Especially if you think you can fix it in post processing.) But that's the way I do things.
 

goz63

Senior Member
Joseph, I agree to try and make the first shot count with the settings you use. I just don't get too wrapped up in it. I look at the picture in PP and see how I like it with different WB settings. Often times when I am outside, it is difficult to see how the picture turned out on the LCD screen with the daylight etc. I set what I think is best and then adjust as necessary at home. Gives me that digital dark room feel. :)
 
Top