night photo shots

[blbxt]

hi imhave just stared to use my digital camera. i have a sony a 100 with a 18-70 mm lens and a 75 to 300 mm lens. i was taking as shot of the full moon we had and man was it bluured really bad. is there any suggestions. i am still learning the buttons on it but hoping to take a familarazation class for the camera soon can any one help.

[Edd]

Hi there,

Okay I've been photographing the moon of recent for the "Time Lapse" project (See thread in General Discussions Area), there are a few things that you can do.

First and for most you need to stablise the camera so use a tripod. If you don't have one then you need to come up with an idea of how to keep the camera still by resting it something like a table or bench and elevating the camera so you can see the moon through the eye piece.

Next shutter speed, sounds strange but I assume you are shooting at night, (sometimes the moon can be seen in daylight hours) therefore you will have slow shutter speed which means the camera has to be kept very still. You can try to increase the shutter speed by increasing the ISO this may help a little.

The other thing that I found was metering. In the lense the moon was a relatively small disc in the middle of the large dark background. I switched to Spot Metering so the camera exposure is set by the meter looking at a small area in the middle of the lense instead of metering the whole frame your shooting. Found this increased the exposure from 1/3rd of second to around 1/60th of a second.

Your still going to need the tripod/steady surface to stand the camera on though.

The only other tip I can give is line up the shot and take it using either remote switch that plugs into the camera or use the timer on the camera.

Post a couple of shots and see if we can help you more.

Good Luck

Ed

[gldiana]

Hi, and welcome

First of all remember: the Moon moves! There's no stopping that
And it move quite fast so a fast shutter speed is absolutely necessary. I try to keep mine around 1/30th of a second, you definitely don't want to expose over 1/60th.
Also, because it's so bright you will need to underexpose.
My photo here was underexposed 2 full f/stops. It was windy so some of the tree branches are blurred.

[bob_r]

I shot this a lot different than what you would normally expect for a moon shot. This was taken HANDHELD at 7:30 in the morning last halloween with a Canon 30D and a Canon 100-400mm lens. I darkened the background in photoshop.

Bob R

1/250s f/5.6 at 400.0mm iso400

[gldiana]

Bob,
you made me scream "gorgeous!"

If all goes well I'll be getting the 100-400 soon

[bob_r]

Bob,
you made me scream "gorgeous!"

If all goes well I'll be getting the 100-400 soon

Thanks, Luca. You'll love the 100-400. I think that lens and the 50D could be a killer combo.

[Edd]

Wow truely amazing shot Bob.

Are you sure you weren't on the shuttle or something similar

Edd

[bob_r]

Wow truely amazing shot Bob.

Are you sure you weren't on the shuttle or something similar

Edd

You caught me, Ed.

[gldiana]

Fantastic shot, and quite original.

[Edd]

Brilliant Bob

Ed

[bob_r]

Thanks, guys.