Well I am a hobbyist photographer not a professional and doing any tutorial for the first time.
When I started photography few years back, I had a very strong interest in capturing moon images and I think almost every photographer love to capture moon. In starting I don’t have any idea about camera settings but after much research on internet and watching loads of videos on YouTube, finally I am able to capture reasonably good photos of moon.
Although my captured images are still not very good and have to learn a lot, I thought to share my knowledge about moon photography.
For capturing sharp images of moon, one should have a dslr camera and a telephoto zoom lens of minimum 200mm focal length. Bridge cameras with fixed zoom lenses and manual settings are also equally good for moon photography. I use Canon 75-300mm lens at focal length of 300mm. Larger focal length will provide closer look of the moon.
For other camera settings, put the camera in manual mode and use a good quality tripod so that camera do not shake and blur images. Set metering mood to spot metering (this is very important factor and normally didn’t find in most tutorials). Use aperture between f/8 and f/11, shutter speed between 1/60 and 1/125 and start with iso 100. I always use auto white balance as am not a professional but one can try different white balance settings. Use a remote for shutter release or set 2 seconds timer in camera to avoid camera shake.
If not using a tripod, follow the lunar 11 rule. The lunar 11 rule define that the shutter speed of the camera should be equal to reciprocal of iso. Means if the iso is 100, the shutter speed should be 1/100, for iso 500, shutter speed should be 1/500.
There is also a rule of focal length and shutter speed of hand held photography that the shutter speed should be at least double of the focal length means if the focal length is 300mm, shutter speed should be 1/600 or more. This will minimize the camera shake.
Focusing is a very important factor in photography and all modern dslr cameras have a good auto focus system. But in some cases manual still focus wins. Cheap zoom lenses normally take more time in auto focus so I use manual focus instead of auto. Easiest way of manual focusing is to open the image on lcd screen on the back side of camera and zoom the image. It helps a lot in manual focusing and capturing sharp images.
Start capturing images and change settings if needed.
Hope this tutorial will help. As already mentioned, I am not a professional photographer so I request if I forget anything to mention or anyone find any mistakes, please guide me. Questions and suggestions are more than welcome.
Thanks and enjoy moon photography ?
that I captured last 7th of May this year 2020 around 10:40 in the evening…