Digital Photography—Techniques for Capturing Pictures of the Moon
Photography Techniques For Novice And Professional Photographers
The moon…you’ve seen it thousands of times in various crescent shapes and its full face; and it looks like it would be so easy to take amazing digital photos of it. It is, once you know how; and the tips in this article will help you do just that.
Most of what you need to know to take those interesting digital photos of the moon relates to equipment. Without the right equipment, any pictures you try to take will only show the moon as a small orb of light. You want to capture the mystery, the mood and even some of the details of the moon’s surface; and that requires the following list of equipment.
• A DSLR camera.
• A zoom lens with a minimum focal length of 300mm.
• An optional tele-converter.
• A tripod.
• A shutter-release cable or remote control.
Because of the large lens that’s required, you must have a DSLR camera. A lens on a compact, or point-and-shoot, camera simply can’t fill the frame with enough of the moon to shoot outstanding digital photos of it. A 300mm zoom lens is a minimum size and that will only make the moon about one-eighth of the total picture. The bigger you want the moon to appear in your photos, the bigger the lens you need. A 500mm is better; an 800mm is better yet. Lenses of these sizes are expensive, but you can also rent them for a 24-hour period for typically $50 or less.
A tele-converter is an option to purchasing or renting a large lens. A tele-converter will probably cost more than a rental, but only a fraction of the price of a very large lens. A tele-converter is a piece of glass in a frame similar to a filter that you attach to your lens, which increases the focal length of your lens by the tele-converter’s factor. A 300mm lens doubles to a 600mm focal length when you use a 2x tele-converter. You can also use more than one tele-converter to magnify the moon even more, so it fills half or more of your digital photos.
The downside of that huge lens is that you’ll never hold it still enough to shoot sharp pictures, which is why a tripod is necessary. Another important accessory is a remote shutter release, so you don’t have to push the shutter release on the camera. Even that slight movement will blur the beautiful moon photo you just carefully composed.
When planning your digital photography shoot of the moon, remember to check the calendar to know when it will be full or displayed as various crescent shapes that you can photograph as a series. Because the moon moves across the sky quicker than you think and you’ve composed a photo that is mostly filled with the moon, you’ll want to check your framing just before you release the shutter. Proper exposure is also crucial, since the moon reflects so much light from the sun against a totally black background. Do some experimenting and exposure bracketing. You can also set your camera to the RAW mode and finely adjust the exposure in photo-editing software.
Sharp digital photos of the moon that fill most of the image are starkly beautiful as well as otherworldly. Enlarge a few of your best to display on the walls of your home as art.