Bad photo of the moon.

[kipper]

Hi all, was doing a bit of night photography with the moon out in all it's full glory. However the photos came out fairly dismal. The moon showed no detail at all just a white blob with a green flare at the bottom of it. Anybody know how to correct this?

<img src="http://members.iinet.net.au/~darryl_m/Moon.jpg">

The moon is over-exposed from what I can tell. However I don't want to lose any of the detail of the rest of the scene. So I'm gathering I'll need to use a filter of some sort.

[Onyx]

I see it was taken at 1/6s and f/5.6. You'll need much shorter exposure times to get details on the moon surface (don't worry I had pics like that when I first started too).

Try using a shutter between 1/30 and 1/200. Don't worry about what the histogram tells you, shoot in NEF and boost the exposure after. Depending on lens used, you might wanna stop down to f/8 or f/11 to seek the lens' sweetspot. Short shutter also eliminates most of the flaring. I'd post an example but I'm on my notebook in bed, and most my images are on the desktop over there [points across room].

[dooda]

I read about moon shots recently.

F/16 always

then a shutter speed that matches more or less with ISO. I haven't tried this yet, but some guy in a magazine told me this, so I assume it could be correct.

Don't know about the green spotch, but close down the aperture and speed up the shutter speed and see what happens.

[Killakoala]

I believe that when it comes to shooting the moon, there are no rules.

Shot at 1/60 at 200ISO. F10 500mm mirror lens.

[gstark]

Did you stand on a chair to get that much closer Steve?

Nice image.

[Killakoala]

Such is the beauty of 500mm....

[gstark]

Such is the beauty of 500mm....

Indeed. I should see what my 80-400 can do at its pointy end.

[Raydar]

Indeed. I should see what my 80-400 can do at its pointy end.

Yes please I would like to see that
I've started to put some money away each week to get that lens.

I have the VR bug "Big time"

Cheers
Ray

[skippy]

I believe that when it comes to shooting the moon, there are no rules.

Shot at 1/60 at 200ISO. F10 500mm mirror lens.

Hey Steve, is this cropped at all, or is it really that full frame?
Evil thought - add a TC?

[Matt. K]

Best starting point for shooting the moon is f/11 or f/16 with shutter speed set close to the ISO, (as stated in a previous post). If you want the landscape and the moon shoot 2 images from a tripod at 1 exposure for the moon and a much longer 1 for the landscape. Merge them together in Photoshop.

Fill flash and standing on a chair is only recommended for Canon camera users.

[mic]

You can even use a cheap Telescope and just take a couple of RAW by just holding the D70 to the Telescopes Eyepiece.

I'm very proud of this shot ( was just supposed to be an experiment )
It turned out one of the best shots I have produced. ( Well, so far ? )

Just Click here : http://homepage.mac.com/micward/PhotoAlbum15.html