How do you take a good picture of the moon??

Question

Ok here is what my picture of the moon looks like: http://flickr.com/photos/garnite/27790363/

Answer 1

Go outside and have the flash on and hit the little buttin that takes the pic :)

Answer 2

1st of all, the Sunny 16 Rule is - You set your shutter speed to match your ISO (ASA) speed, and set your camera at F/16. From there you hope for the best..

Now, with digital you have the ability to do test shot after test shot until you get what you want. Not knowing how 'big' your zoom is it's hard to say how big the moon will be in your picture. You will tho have to go to a M mode and set things your self for the best results.

Try the tripod thing as well as the self timer again, but this time set your ISO speed to 200 and the camera's f/stop to 5.6 or 8 and then set the exposure for 1 second. Look at the results. If too bright, cut the exposure down, if too dark, go to 2 seconds and so on.

If your camera has a way to set the focus, THIS would help a lot too, so if you have a distance scenery setting for focus or even a manual way to set focus, set for infinity or distance mountains or what ever you have.

Don't change anything except the shutter speeds, up or down, however, if needed try everything again at 4 or 800 speed.

Your camera may the limiting factor here. Not long enuf zoom or enuf manual controls. It did look like there was a fair amount in internal glare and reflection in your pic, but you can still have a lot of fun experimenting with long exposures at night..

Have fun

http://lensmen2.smugmug.com/gallery/5754... - A few moon shots I have tried...

Bob - Tucson

Answer 3

You have to remember that even though it's night where you are, the moon is in full sunlight. Either spot meter or manually set your camera for a full sunlight exposure. (Sunny 16 rule - f:16 at 1/ISO).

Answer 4

injanier was correct...give it a daylight exposure. At ISO 200, a good starting point is f/5.6 at 1500, which is about the same exposure as the aforementioned "sunny 16" rule. To do this, you need to set you camera on manual exposure and set both aperture and shutter speed.

The "sunny 16" exposure only applies, however, after the moon rises a ways above the horizon. When it's low, light diffraction sucks much of the intensity, requiring a greater exposure.

It does look like your lens suffers a bit from internal reflections, which explains the pink anomalies. Most of those should disappear when you give the moon a correct exposure.

Answer 5

You will need a lot of zoom or a telescope and adapter for your camera.  If you are trying to get a night landscape then setup the tripod, compose the shot and try several shots with different setting on the shutter

Good luck!