Moon Tips... » Bob's Blahg

I don’t get asked alot of questions but I found the answer to a common question by Googling it. The question was “How do you photograph the moon?”.

The thing to remember is that the moon is reflecting the sun’s light and is bright. Most cameras on auto have a habit of exposing just for the light (over exposing) giving you a white, featureless, disk.

The secret to exposing for the moon is to do it manually. Place the camera in “Manual” mode and I usually shoot in the neighborhood 1/200 of a second at f/8 -16 depending on the time of evening.

A tripod is a must. Believe it or not the moon is moving. (doh!). The first two photographs I used a 300mm lens. The last photograph was taken at 1/250th of a second, f/8, and a 900mm (Phoenix) lens. You can generally get great photos with the ISO set to 200-400.

The beauty of digital photography these days is that you get immediate results. If your shot doesn’t come out you can change a setting. (Faster or slower shutter speed or increase/decrease the f/stop). No waisted rolls there. *wink*.

I hope you enjoyed this little lesson and have some fun taking planetary photographs. I’m off to shop and dream for more camera stuff.

Peace, Love, and Green Cheese,