Tips for photographing tonight's "Super Moon"

My club in Canada sent this advice along.

"I remind you that when you are photographing the moon, you are really photographing reflected sunlight and therefore you need to manually set your camera with daytime settings.
If you don't, the moon will simply appear as bright disc when you photograph it. If you want to record the surface detail of the moon, you will need to remember the "sunny 16" rule.
This rule tells us that on a bright, sunny day, we can achieve a correct exposure by setting the camera to f16 and the shutter speed to the inverse of the ISO setting. So at an ISO
setting of 200, the following combinations should give you correct exposures for the moon.

f 5.6 - 1/1600s, f 8 -1/800s, f11 - 1/400s, f 16 - 1/200s, f 22 - 1/100s"

Is this for close ups? or does this rule work when you are shooting a night time landscape where the moon is just a small part of the picture?

The moon itself will be properly exposed using these settings, any other subject matter in the frame will likely be underexposed (but silhouettes are interesting in the frame)

Screamin Scott wrote: The moon itself will be properly exposed using these settings, any other subject matter in the frame will likely be underexposed (but silhouettes are interesting in the frame)

What am I missing? What is going on with the moon tonight that is different from other nights?

Good tip, although I think we are expecting rain on and off from today till Monday. So I don't think we will see anything but clouds for me

Photo Junky wrote: What am I missing? What is going on with the moon tonight that is different from other nights?

Here's an article about it...
news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110318/sc_space...soccurssaturdaynight

It's happening tonight? I thought it was supposed to be last night, but it didn't seem any different, so I guess not.

Karl Wertanen wrote: Is this for close ups? or does this rule work when you are shooting a night time landscape where the moon is just a small part of the picture?

Karl, this may be an interesting thing to try for your waterfalls. I'd do it, but we got no falls here. I have tried this on beach shots though. Shooting them in full moon light at night gives you a shutter speed of minutes, and the picture looks similar to shooting on a light overcast day. Imagine what that'll do for your water

Yasko wrote:

Karl Wertanen wrote: Is this for close ups? or does this rule work when you are shooting a night time landscape where the moon is just a small part of the picture?

Karl, this may be an interesting thing to try for your waterfalls. I'd do it, but we got no falls here. I have tried this on beach shots though. Shooting them in full moon light at night gives you a shutter speed of minutes, and the picture looks similar to shooting on a light overcast day. Imagine what that'll do for your water

HA! I'd love too but the nearest waterfall for me is about 6.5 hours away!
Great idea though! Thanks! Next time i'm near one and theres a full moon, I'll try that!! Good idea
I'm going to try shooting at Elizabeth Park (one of my galleries... the one w/the old bridges) and see how they come out

I'm crossing fingers clouds will disappear for us in California!

Baydream wrote: My club in Canada sent this advice along.

"I remind you that when you are photographing the moon, you are really photographing reflected sunlight and therefore you need to manually set your camera with daytime settings.
If you don't, the moon will simply appear as bright disc when you photograph it. If you want to record the surface detail of the moon, you will need to remember the "sunny 16" rule.
This rule tells us that on a bright, sunny day, we can achieve a correct exposure by setting the camera to f16 and the shutter speed to the inverse of the ISO setting. So at an ISO
setting of 200, the following combinations should give you correct exposures for the moon.

f 5.6 - 1/1600s, f 8 -1/800s, f11 - 1/400s, f 16 - 1/200s, f 22 - 1/100s"

I agree with you that exposure is according to the "Sunny 16" rule, but this is a situaton that I would definitely use bracketing.

I have found that sometimes the Exposure Value for the moon is closer to 14 than 15 with a long lens, @200 ISO and f16 you would then have a 1/100 sec. shutter speed.

Just saying that bracketing is a good idea here.

Screamin Scott wrote:

Photo Junky wrote: What am I missing? What is going on with the moon tonight that is different from other nights?

Here's an article about it...
news.yahoo.com/s/space/20110318/sc_space...soccurssaturdaynight

Thank you!

I always feel like such a pain asking questions but since a moon hasn't come along like this for 18 years can someone please talk in beginner terms about what the settings should be. Are you talking about being in manual mode? thanks

alley wrote: I always feel like such a pain asking questions but since a moon hasn't come along like this for 18 years can someone please talk in beginner terms about what the settings should be. Are you talking about being in manual mode? thanks

That is the suggestion. Also watch the 3 videos PT posted on another thread. All had good advice.