Beginners Guide to Photographing the Moon

This Month I am going to tell you how to get some stunning shots of the moon.

This is something that a lot of us will try, but many will get it wrong and end up with over exposed blurry shots.

The main thing people get wrong when trying to photograph the moon is they think that because it is night, they must have to use long exposures to get it, this isn't the case. The Moon is an extremely bright subject to photograph due to it reflecting light from the sun. The other reason we cant use a slow shutter speed is the fact that the earth is rotating. a slow shutter speed will cause the image to blur.

What are you going to need?

Camera with Manual Features
Tripod
Zoom lens of at least 300mm

Camera Settings

Depending how much of the moon is visible (half moon / full moon) settings will vary slightly. A full moon will reflect lots more light that a half moon.

To begin with we need to put our cameras in Manual (M)
Key in an Aperture of f6.3
Select a Shutter speed of 350/1
ISO set to 400

Place the camera on the tripod and zoom in on the moon. You don't have much time between shots before the moon has moved out of the frame and you will need to keep readjusting the tripod.

Now take your first shot. zoom in on the moon in camera and see what it is like.
If it is overexposed (to bright) you need to increase the shutter speed. If its underexposed (to dark) you will need to decrease the shutter speed.

Do this until you get the shot you like and then just crop the photo to make the moon larger in the frame.

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