Taking pictures of the moon

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Les Jones

I’m bookmarking the great advice found here.

Camera D90, lens 18-250mm sigma (image stabilized lens) hand held.
ISO 200
F11, 1/180 sec. at 250mm

I try to shoot the moon several stops UNDER exposed. Then I use increase contrast ONLY to bring the exposure back up. Doing this drives the background to solid black and gives more definition to the craters. If it looks good on your camera monitor, it’s too bright!

I sharpen at about 1 pixel radius and 50-100% in PS elements 5, usually desaturate the color and that’s about it.

Full moons are by far the hardest to shoot. At least they are the hardest to get any details out of. The sun is straight on and there are few shadows to bring out the relief. My favorite moon to shoot for detail is between 1/2 and 3/4 full. Don’t wait for the full moon, try a few just before.

Hat tip to Digital Photography School’s 21 Great Shots [And How They Were Taken].

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