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Post by Bailey on Jan 1, 2018 11:03:39 GMT
Happy new year everyone.
It's been a while since I photographed the moon and so with clear skies this evening I took the opportunity to practise photographing the moon in preparation for the total eclipse on Jan 31. Hopefully that night will be as clear as tonight.
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Post by Lillias on Jan 1, 2018 11:13:57 GMT
A happy New Year to you too bailey. Great photo.
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Post by hmca on Jan 1, 2018 17:52:18 GMT
One terrific shot, Bailey! Was going to ask what lens you used and then saw it in your signature. |
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jan 1, 2018 18:07:17 GMT
bailey,
That is a very nice shot! Do you have a 1.4 teleconverter? If you do have that could then be 840MM!
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Post by Bailey on Jan 2, 2018 6:00:30 GMT
Thank you BillieJean and hmca. Glad you like the photo.
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Post by Bailey on Jan 2, 2018 6:13:34 GMT
bailey, That is a very nice shot! Do you have a 1.4 teleconverter? If you do have that could then be 840MM! Hi Inspeqtor. No, I don't have a teleconverter. My 600D has a 1.6x crop sensor, so the 35mm eq. focal length of my Tamron 150-600mm is effectively 240-960mm. When I researched teleconverters a while back, I decided to not buy one as the cons out-weighed the pros for me. Tamron make a 1.4x and 2x teleconverter and loosing 1-2 stops of light through the teleconverter made the lens too slow for me when hand held, which is most of my photography. The max aperture of F6.3 at the long end I can live with comfortably when the light is good but in low light with a teleconverter, hand held shots would be nigh on impossible for me. The moon photo was taken on a tripod and so a teleconverter might not be an issue, apart from possible slight image quality degradation due to the teleconverter, but I'm not going to buy a teleconverter just for the few times I use a tripod. |
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jan 2, 2018 6:42:23 GMT
Not a problem bailey. I am glad you did take the time to research one.
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Post by Bailey on Jan 2, 2018 8:01:50 GMT
This photo was taken with F10 (original was F6.3). My eyes don't see any significant difference although at F10 the image should theoretically be a little sharper.
If the clouds clear tonight, I will experiment with F10 but with lower ISO and longer shutter speed. The lower ISO might allow me to "enhance" sharpness slightly in post due to reduced noise. But I'm not sure how slow a shutter speed I will be able to use given the earth is rotating and the moon is moving at the time of the shot. Last night I noticed that at 600mm the moon disappeared off the LCD screen (using Liveview mode) after about 1-2 minutes.
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Post by Bailey on Jan 3, 2018 12:35:32 GMT
Finally got a clear night tonight  We're just past the full moon and so the sun is not hitting the moon exactly straight on which is giving more detail on the left edge. These are the camera settings I will start with for the total eclipse on Jan 31. Hopefully will get a clear night (fingers and toes all crossed). |
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Post by Inspeqtor on Jan 3, 2018 12:53:27 GMT
Both shots look good to me bailey! I would not go any slower than the 1/25th of the second shot.
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Post by Bailey on Jan 3, 2018 22:27:15 GMT
Both shots look good to me bailey! I would not go any slower than the 1/25th of the second shot. I assume you mean 1/125th. I am using a tripod. At these settings the image is quite sharp to my eyes, at least when viewing the high-res image. I expect during the total eclipse I will have to tweak the exposure as the moon darkens to a deepish red colour. If I need to, I should be able to slow the shutter speed a little more without affecting the sharpness (due to earth's rotation and moon orbiting) before I would need to play with the aperture or ISO. My only concern now is whether I will get a clear night or not! |
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Post by Peterj on Jan 4, 2018 1:56:23 GMT
I took advantage of the full moon on the first as a practice run for the 31st eclipse  I scouted the area and like this location for the eclipse ... moon will be setting from left to right ... daylight exposure manipulated to appear similar to sunrise  |
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Post by Bailey on Jan 4, 2018 2:56:20 GMT
In case anyone is interested in how to photograph the moon, there is heaps of information (mostly very similar) on the www. This is a summary of the set up I use. 1. Mount the camera on a sturdy tripod or something solid where the camera is not easily moved. 2. Set exposure settings to something similar to my previous photo in this thread as a starting point. 3. Turn on Liveview (view image on the LCD screen) which also has the benefit of locking up the camera's mirror. If you prefer to use the view finder and your camera has the option to lock up the mirror (on Canon it's in custom functions) then I highly recommend using it. Locking up the mirror removes one potential source of camera shake. (also, using liveview on the swivel lcd screen is much better for my neck when the camera is pointed skywards  ) 4. Point the camera at the moon with the lens at the short end (makes it easier to find the moon) and then zoom in to your preferred focal length. 5. Using the zoom button on the camera for the LCD screen, I zoom the LCD screen to maximum to help accurate focusing. 6. I then use back button focus to focus on the moon. The auto focus on my camera works really well. If you have trouble auto-focusing the moon, then your only other option is manual focus. If you prefer to not use BBF, then I would recommend switching your lens to manual focus after auto focusing using the shutter button to lock in the focus. You don't want the camera to refocus every time you half press the shutter button. BBF takes the focusing function off the shutter button. 7. I then use a cable remote shutter release to take the shot. If you don't have a remote shutter release, then you can use the timer function on your camera. Pressing the shutter button manually could cause some camera-shake (blurring), especially if zoomed in close. 8. Voila!! Hopefully you now have a nice photo of the moon |
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Post by hmca on Jan 4, 2018 3:08:09 GMT
Bailey, thanks for the detailed info on your set-up. I will refer back to it the next time I try to capture the moon.
Peterj......you seem to have found a perfect location. I hope you get a clear night.
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Post by Bailey on Jan 4, 2018 3:15:53 GMT
Bailey, thanks for the detailed info on your set-up. I will refer back to it the next time I try to capture the moon. No problem. I hope it helps |
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