Lady Moon

This is one of the first projects that I have shot when I took up photography... and I have since stop shooting the moon anymore... it is not that the moon is not a challenge, but I got bore with it... and don't remind me... I forget the last lunar eclipse... and had to wait till 2014 for another chance to shoot.

Well... shooting the moon, it is best to have a telezoom, the longer the focal length, the better it is... or you will only see a bright sphere.

Exposure is very difficult for the moon, because it is bright (reflected light from the sun) and when you got the exposure for the moon right, everything else would be too dark to see... if you get the exposure for other object to be right, the moon would be overexpose.

There are a couple of way to get things right, one was by taking two photos, one with the moon correctly exposed, and another with the surrounding correctly exposed, then layered the two photos together.

Another way was not necessary more complicated but was not that simple either, it involve double exposure.

Anyway, I will not go into all these at this moment (I haven't try any of them yet).

Shooting of the moon, a tripod is desirable, because you do not have the luxury of using a flashgun, no flash would be strong enough to project up to the moon... and it would only add to the colour noise.

I normally look at the moon and the surrounding, then define what I want to project, what is the composition I wanted, what is the main subject, then I expose my photo accordingly.

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal length: 250mm

For the above photo, if you look closely enough, it is clear that 250mm is not enough to retain the details.

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/60 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 250mm

The above photo is basically taken at the same time as the previous photo, however knowing the limitation, I chose not to position the moon directly in the middle of the frame... which is pretty boring, so I move it up to the top right corner of the frame to give it more depth.

ISO : 400
Shutter Speed: 1/200
Aperture : f/8
Focal length: 250mm



Well... by just taking the picture of a moon and the moon alone is pretty boring, you need something else to bring out the moon. I use some leaves, and in that example, the moon is the main subject, thus the leaves are blurred and not brightly exposed.

ISO: 400
Shutter Speed: 1/200
Aperture: f/6
Focal length: 250mm

This photo is the same in all setting, except for the aperture opening, so that it will give a brighter exposure to the entire sky.

And I include more of the leaves to give it a serene feel as compared to the photo on top.



Sometime, the moon doesn't have to be totally and correctly exposed to sure all the facial detail... keep a lookout for the surrounding as well be seen in the photos below,

ISO: 400
Shutter speed: 0.7 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 250mm



So it is pretty fun to shoot moon in actual fact... but recently we are not seeing alot of the fair lady in my country... which is a bummer.

Anyway, there is a word of advice, if your exposure timing is too long - around 2sec and above, be ready to see some really blur photo... it is not the fault of your tripod... but the moon actually move.

In conclusion, when taking photos of our lady... and if your equipment is not good enough, work around it. You are bound to come out with something that is good. Don't just photo the moon... as in... the moon only... it is boring and millions of people are doing it... add some depth to your pic... use whatever available to you... be it leaves, flats, apartments or even the clouds.

Have fun!